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Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

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Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#71

Post by NoPie »

jmkni wrote: post #53

Stupid question, but could this guy end up in some sort of legal trouble? He's obviously a hero and saved the lives of everyone on board, but it's still illegal to fly a plane while unqualified, right?

Only in America... :D

But seriously most likely there are laws that allow you do things in emergency and not be prosecuted. In the UK it is called the doctrine of necessity. The example given was that only a doctor is allowed to give an order to use “prescription only” medicine. But in emergency situations where there is no doctor and you need to save a life, then it would be ok to do by anybody else as long as he has at least some idea what he is doing.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#72

Post by Nextgrid »

wl wrote: post #50
tragictrash wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wager a small plane would be easier to land than a commercial airliner partially due to the fewer number of switches in the cockpit.

Commercial airliners have autoland systems. Much less common in smaller planes.

Configuring these is very difficult (for a non-pilot) and it might rely on airport-side equipment that not all airports have.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#73

Post by anthropodie »

p1mrx wrote: post #59
tshaddox wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t 3D easier? There sure is a lot more room.

It's not the 3D that kills you; it's the sudden 2D at the end.

Yup but I always thought what if we do like a 1 feet above the ground? We avoid death by plummeting from the sky.

There are other advantages like

- we don't need roads and we save a lot of energy and money on their construction and maintenance.

- we also save energy by going from point A to point B directly instead of following the road.

- No friction between tyre and ground

I guess the amount of energy required to keep vehicle above ground by 1 feet is more than all the savings combined.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#74

Post by progre »

jmkni wrote: post #53

Stupid question, but could this guy end up in some sort of legal trouble? He's obviously a hero and saved the lives of everyone on board, but it's still illegal to fly a plane while unqualified, right?

In some situations illegal things become legal. Like how it's illegal to stand on the street and stop the traffic. Except it becomes legal if you are preventing drivers from driving their cars of a collapsed bridge.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#75

Post by jaywalk »

aero-glide2 wrote: post #12
vmception wrote: post #7

bravo! any idea how hard or easy this is? did the passenger land on an airstrip or where? all details lacking

Im not familiar with this plane, but the Airbus a320 has an auto-landing autopilot. I wonder how often that's used though.

Most commercial airliners have the same system. It's mainly used in bad weather when the visibility is below minimums for a manual landing. CAT IIIc autoland (the highest/most advanced) is certified for zero-visibility landings.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#76

Post by Ambolia »

tshaddox wrote: post #47
tragictrash wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always said the reason we don't have flying cars yet is because people can't drive in 2D much less 3D. This gives me hope.

Isn’t 3D easier? There sure is a lot more room.

Empty air, a 2d empty plane would be easy too. If it was 3d tunnels it would be hard, those Descent videogames were tricky.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#77

Post by mattmaroon »

civil_engineer wrote: post #13

Pilot here. I'm floored that a person with no flying experience could put this airplane down without a scratch. Air traffic controllers are not necessarily pilots, but luckily, this one was a pilot and certified instructor. ATC and passenger worked through a stressful situation to produce an amazing outcome. Bravo!

Idk, I’ve only flown 172s and have only landed a handful of times myself, but I think you could fairly easily talk someone through landing with an at least decent chance of survival if the weather was good. I mean this is not an experiment you want to run, of course. But landing in good conditions is pretty intuitive. You can tell if your angle to the runway is good or bad pretty easily and just adjust the throttle. And those things will stop themselves with plenty of runway left. You could probably land a small plane halfway down the runway, not know how to operate the brakes, and still come to a crawl before the end in most places.

I wouldn’t take an even money wager on it but I don’t think it’s terribly unlikely to have a decent landing. Especially since the pilot likely was showing him the controls in air before going unresponsive.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#78

Post by bendbro »

djohnston wrote: post #64
jmkni wrote: post #53

Stupid question, but could this guy end up in some sort of legal trouble? He's obviously a hero and saved the lives of everyone on board, but it's still illegal to fly a plane while unqualified, right?

Definitely not illegal in an emergency situation like this.

Source: just trust me bro.

It better be legal, or the FAA better not prosecute.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#79

Post by avemg »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #57

Video of the landing, it's very nicely done. https://twitter.com/aviationbrk/status/1524410837414391809

I've made worse landings with a CFI sitting next to me in the cockpit when I was starting out. Landed a bit long but otherwise looked like a soft touchdown and a straight roll. Very impressive!
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