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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

#41

Post by edrxty »

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

It's not hard, if they had spent time around aircraft they provably had a rudimentary understanding of the controls. The dicey part is staying calm during the final stage of landing. You need to stay slow but not too slow and not panic and do something crazy as student pilots occasionally do early in training (going too fast, trying to force the plane to land but just porpoising down the runway, freezing, flaring too early and holding the flare, etc)

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

#42

Post by hugh-avherald »

mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #34

Mythbusters once went to a commercial airline simulator to test the idea that a passenger with no training could land the plane. Without ATC help, it wasn't a great outcome. With ATC, they faired much better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ8K-hOcRHk

Large aircraft are one thing, but most folks could land a light aircraft most of the time in good weather with barely any training. But most is like 80% and there's probably a 10% chance of dying or at least badly damaging the aircraft.

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

#43

Post by enw »

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!

> Air traffic controllers are not necessarily pilots, but luckily, this one was a pilot and certified instructor.

Source? The article itself is quite short.

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

#44

Post by vhodges »

Wow... They should make a movie about that.

For you youngins out there... this is a joke, there were several Airport 7X movies (including an episode of The Incredible Hulk (Bill Bixby series) where Banner/The Hulk had to land a plane) in the 70's.

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

#45

Post by tragictrash »

supercheetah wrote: post #30

Mythbusters did something like this, but it was just using one of those big commercial training simulators instead of a real plane if I recall correctly, and showed that it was possible.

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.

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

#46

Post by throwaway0a5e »

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!

A lot of people in aviation wind up being instructors to rack up flight hours early in their careers. An ATC, A&P mechanic, a charter pilot or any other aviation professional that would have probably had some commercial flying time earlier in their career being an instructor isn't a given but it's also not surprising at all. The fact that they were able to verbalize stuff sufficiently well for the person at the controls to do the right thing is the more impressive part.

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

#47

Post by tshaddox »

tragictrash wrote: post #39
jaywalk wrote: post #31

Garmin's got a relatively new system called Autoland that is designed for this exact situation. It allows a plane to land simply by pushing one button. It will pick the nearest appropriate airport, communicate with ATC, and land the plane entirely on its own. It's pretty amazing technology: https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/garmin-autoland-thi...

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.

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

#48

Post by imoverclocked »

andrewmunsell wrote: post #16
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

They landed at an airport. I think the CNN article has a bit more context: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/florida-passenger-lands-p... > Morgan learned the passenger on the line had never flown a plane -- but had been around aviation and seen other pilots fly. If they've been around planes like this before, I don't think it'd be that difficult to land in one piece with guidance (and the ATC seemed to be a CFI as…

Can’t solo with passengers… :) this was commercial experience!

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

#49

Post by joadha »

aqme28 wrote: post #3
edf13 wrote: post #2

That auto-play video is annoying!

They're commenting on parts of the source video that we can't even see! What is the point of that?

To obscure the facts of the story that when gathered make it less impactful / impressive.

It's clear that the "no idea how to fly" guy actually had plenty idea, when you listen to the full audio.

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

#50

Post by wl »

tragictrash wrote: post #45
supercheetah wrote: post #30

Mythbusters did something like this, but it was just using one of those big commercial training simulators instead of a real plane if I recall correctly, and showed that it was possible.

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.
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