uk Pilot falls ill leaving passenger to land plane

[theyarecomingforyou]

A pilot who fell ill at the controls of a light aircraft, leaving a passenger to land the plane, has died, Humberside police say.

 

The plane had taken off from a small airfield in Doncaster, about 25 miles away, early on Tuesday morning, carrying just the pilot and the passenger. The pilot made a distress call at 6.20pm and shortly afterwards became so ill that the responsibility of landing the plane fell to the passenger, who had never flown a plane before, according to one of the two flight instructors on the ground who guided him in. Humberside police said on Wednesday that the pilot "was sadly pronounced dead last night".

 

Roy Murray, who works at a flying school based at the airport, was one of those who assisted the passenger after he took over the controls. He told the BBC: "He made quite a good landing, actually. He didn't know the layout of the aeroplane. He didn't have lights on so he was absolutely flying blind as well.

 

"I think he'd flown once before as a passenger but never flown an aeroplane before."

Source: The Guardian

 

That would be a very scary position to be in but thankfully the experts on the ground were skilled enough to guide him through the process.

[Growled Member]

That would be extremely scary. Glad he was able to land safely.

[theyarecomingforyou]

That would be extremely scary.

Indeed. By the time the distress call was made it would have already have started to get dark and he didn't have any lights on, meaning he was flying blind. In situations like that you have to place your complete trust in somebody else.