“The odds are still very much against you, but the results would vary person to person and airplane to airplane,” Smith says. The flight attendant, Andreas Prodromou, had remained conscious by using a portable oxygen canister, but only gained access to the cockpit minutes before the engines flamed out.Ī slightly more favorable scenario would be one in which the plane is already configured for landing and lined up with the runway, rather than at cruise altitude. He was unable to do a thing the plane ran out of fuel and crashed,” says Smith, referring to the 2005 crash of Helios Airways Flight 522, which killed all 121 on board. “The closest real-life example of this took place several years ago over Greece, when a flight attendant, who was also a student pilot, took over the controls of a 737 after the rest of the crew and passengers were incapacitated due to a pressurization failure. No passenger has ever landed an airliner, but that’s mostly because no one has ever had to try. Most successful unqualified emergency landings have involved Cessna light aircraft. “A non-pilot wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to even work the communications radios, let alone fly and land the jet,” he says. Smith believes that a person with no flying experience taking over the controls of a commercial passenger plane at altitude would have no chance of a successful outcome. On larger planes such as airliners, however, even such an optimal scenario could fall short, according to Patrick Smith, an airline pilot flying Boeing 767 aircraft and the author of the popular book and blog “Ask the Pilot.” But if any of these conditions is absent, he adds, things could get ugly. “For example, being able to quickly adapt to and understand the relationships between the plane’s flight control devices, such as the rudder and throttle controls, and their aerodynamic responses,” Moss says. And finally, some natural talent for controlling a mechanical device. Second, help from a flight instructor on the radio to talk them through every step. In 2009, a Boeing 777 landed safely after one of the pilots died halfway through a transatlantic flight, and the two remaining ones took the controls.Īccording to Douglas Moss, an FAA certified flight instructor and former United Airlines pilot, while it is very difficult to land a plane without experience, it’s definitely possible given certain conditions, as the events above demonstrate.įirst, a motivated person who realizes that they’re in a life or death situation. If one of them becomes incapacitated, the other simply takes over. These small planes are the top choice in flight schools, as they are sturdy and relatively intuitive to control, and as a result they have become popular with flight enthusiasts.Ĭrucially, they only require one pilot, whereas larger planes have two (or more, in the case of long haul commercial flights that employ crew rotation). There’s a common trait in these events: they all involved Cessna aircraft. And in 2012 in Wisconsin, 80-year-old Helen Collins, who had some piloting experience, successfully landed the plane her husband was flying before he fell ill. In 2013, pensioner John Wildey, who had served in the air force but not as a pilot, safely brought an aircraft to the ground in northeast England, in the dark and after a few unsuccessful attempts. In 2019, flight student Max Sylvester landed a plane in Western Australia during his very first flying lesson, after the pilot had lost consciousness. The incident is just the latest in a streak of similarly lucky “talk-down” landings, in which a passenger landed a plane safely with the assistance of someone from the ground or on other aircraft. But with over-the-radio help from certified flight instructor and air traffic controller Robert Morgan, Harrison landed the plane almost perfectly at Palm Beach International Airport. The pilot of his flight from Bahamas to Fort Pierce in Florida, in early May, had “gone incoherent,” leaving the single-engine Cessna 208 aircraft with no one at the controls. If your name is Darren Harrison, the answer is yes. It’s a nightmare scenario: the pilot of your flight is incapacitated and someone has to get in their seat and land the plane.
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