Monday, April 13, 2009

A flight simmer's wet dream...

(Reported from The Associated Press and the Naples Daily News)

In the twenty-plus years that I've been a flight simulation fan (and the six-plus that I've been a licensed pilot) this discussion has been coming up time and again: "I'm an avid flight simmer - would I be able to land a plane if the pilots were incapacitated?" (also in various flavors, like "If the pilots died and there was rapid decompression..." or "if the pilots were passed out..." etc etc.)

I hadn't thought this could actually come to be a reality though... however, stranger things have happened, and according to this news item, a passenger was, in fact, able to land a plane in Florida, after the pilot died... granted, the plane was climbing on autopilot, and the passenger was a licensed (albeit single-engine rated) pilot... but still - in my book, this is worthy of a note!

So now we know! (I guess I'll start going on King Air rides more often now!)

1 comment:

Tony said...

read about this, I for one have always wanted some situation where the flight attendant runs out into the cabin shouting, "Is there a pilot on board!?". Kudos to the pilot who landed that plane.