0 time passenger lands plane (Cessna Caravan)

Passenger slipped the pilot a mickey after extensive sim training. Plans on selling the rights to Hollywood
 
“0 time passenger“….. could have had 10,000 flying hours but never been a passenger.

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Just curious now: I keep reading of incapacitated pilots and passengers taking controls and landing successfully. Is there any report of incapacitated pilots and a passenger not landing the plane successfully? With the way these stories are presented, pilots are just decorative accessories...
 
TCABM said:
Beck Weathers.

Survived a storm on Everest that was the subject of the book, and later film, Into Thin Air. Lost a bunch of surface area to frost bite. Recovered and invented a way to grow nose tips, ear tips, etc., on the backs of mice, then developed a way to successfully transplant them onto humans.
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Just watched that movie yesterday.
 
A lot of people are claiming he flew the AP all the way down. Does this look like the descent profile of an airplane on autopilot? Doesn't look like it to me.

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JonH said:
A lot of people are claiming he flew the AP all the way down. Does this look like the descent profile of an airplane on autopilot? Doesn't look like it to me.

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No, but it doesn't look like the profile of a first timer either.
 
FAA:


At noon EDT on Tuesday, May 10, the pilot of a Cessna 208 flying to Florida from the Bahamas told his two passengers he wasn’t feeling well. He fell against the controls, putting the aircraft into a nosedive and sharp turn.

The passengers had no flying experience, and what unfolded thereafter was truly remarkable thanks to a team of air traffic controllers.

At that point, one of the passengers jumped into action. He pulled the aircraft out of the nosedive and called Fort Pierce Tower at Treasure Coast International Airport in Fort Pierce, Fla., to let them know the pilot was incapacitated, and that he had no flying experience.

“I’ve got a serious situation here … the pilot is incoherent … and I have no idea how to fly the airplane.” — audio from radio call

Controller Christopher “Chip” Flores at Fort Pierce Tower received the radio call and asked the passenger the location of the plane. The passenger did not know where the aircraft was. With assistance from operational supervisor Justin Boyle, Flores calmly instructed the man to fly straight ahead and to start a gradual descent allowing time for air traffic control to locate the aircraft. Joshua Somers, operations supervisor at Palm Beach air traffic control facility, rushed to provide help in tracking it. The plane was identified as being approximately 20 miles from Boca Raton Airport over the Atlantic Airport.

Flores advised the passenger to change his radio frequency to Palm Beach air traffic control, but the passenger did not know how to change frequencies. So, basic emergency radios were used to talk to the passenger. Flores reassured the passenger that a controller at the Palm Beach air traffic facility would help him.

“That guy did a lot of the legwork to get him headed the right way. I’m sure other people in the tower were helping too.” — Robert Morgan on Chip Flores and Justin Boyle.

The lead air traffic controller at Palm Beach air traffic facility, Gregory Battani, quickly called that controller, Robert Morgan, a certified flight instructor with experience piloting Cessna aircraft, from his break to guide the pilot to Palm Beach Airport. Morgan offered clear, short directions on how to fly and confirmed that the passenger understood each instruction.

The entire air traffic control team at Palm Beach Tower stepped in to provide support. Mark Siviglia, the operations manager, stopped departures at Palm Beach Airport. Controllers contacted adjacent control facilities to put aircraft into holding patterns and to expect delays due to the ongoing emergency. Tower controllers dispatched emergency responders and moved vehicles and aircraft away from the runway to prepare for the passenger’s attempt to land. The air traffic manager, Ryan Warren, printed a photo of the Cessna 208 cockpit for Morgan’s reference.

“We’ve never had anything like that…I felt like I was in a movie,” said Morgan. “Everybody wanted to participate and came out of the offices to assist in any kind of way.”

The passenger initially wanted to land at Boca Raton, but Morgan instead guided him to Palm Beach International Airport because it had a longer runway, was less congested, and had adequate radio coverage. Morgan walked the passenger through turns, selecting flap settings needed to create enough lift at slower speeds and trim (to alleviate pressure from the control surfaces during flap extension) and explaining how to land. He then made sure the passenger had the Palm Beach runway in sight.

Morgan guided the passenger through a long, stable final approach. He described what the runway was going to look like as the plane descended. Once the aircraft was over the runway, Morgan explained to the passenger how to keep the nose barely off the ground until the main gear touchdown. The passenger did not know how to stop the plane, so the controller instructed the pilot how to brake and adjust levers.

The aircraft successfully landed at 4:37 p.m. local time. First responders were there to assist with the original pilot. Neither passenger had any injuries.

“At the end of the day, I feel like I was just doing my job,” Morgan said, “but it was like on a higher level than you thought you’d have to do it.”


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All we’re getting is the Tower conversation. And that was well before the approach and landing. They got Palm Beach Approach to come up on the Frequency

ATC: Palm Beach approach is gonna talk to you. They're gonna direct you to the Palm Beach Airport. You should hear them on this frequency momentarily.

Hasn’t anyone come up with tapes on that yet?
 
Great outcome! "10-4 good buddy ... breaker, breaker!"
 
Anyone know if was riding shotgun on the flight? Or did he go up there when the pilot started wigging out? Maybe him and the pilot was shootin the sheet and he was telling him about the plane. Things like this is the altimeter, this tells us how fast we are going, this tells us how fast we are going up and down. Stuff like that. Could account for some of the familiarity he had with the plane.
 
luvflyin said:
All we’re getting is the Tower conversation. And that was well before the approach and landing. They got Palm Beach Approach to come up on the Frequency

ATC: Palm Beach approach is gonna talk to you. They're gonna direct you to the Palm Beach Airport. You should hear them on this frequency momentarily.

Hasn’t anyone come up with tapes on that yet?
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I checked every one of the published Palm Beach frequencies on LiveATC archives for the date and time of the landing. Couldn’t find anything except a few comments to holding aircraft. I suspect the whole operation was done with the controller/instructor and the pilot via cell phone.
 
eman1200 said:
Does that final approach look like a track a first timer would fly?
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Nope, I just wanted confirmation all the people claiming AP on the Katheryn's report comments are clueless or too lazy to check the flight track.

The ground track does look straight enough to be autopilot but the VS doesn't look that way.

Anyway if the guy pulled the airplane out of a dive I'd assume he could hold a heading.
 
I think this is all hyped up like someone said earlier. he needed help with that aircraft, he didn't know where they were, and he was in fact a passenger. none of that means he had no flight training or experience.
 
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Piperonca said:
https://www.liveatc.net/recordings.php
Controller tells him to set transponder to 7700 and ident. Passenger says 'iwhat?' About 4 minutes in he says 'got the coast in my headlights.' Said a couple minutes later, 'I don't know how to do anything.' Of course, he did know a few things. Enough of them. Most likely had flown as pax with a private or commercial pilot during happier days, and had picked up some lingo.
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Awesome! Thank you! I had no idea that liveatc had a 'noteworthy event' listing like that or I wouldn't have been lazy and asked someone to find it for me. Now I know. Many thanks, sir!
 
bmackinnon said:
Awesome! Thank you! I had no idea that liveatc had a 'noteworthy event' listing like that or I wouldn't have been lazy and asked someone to find it for me. Now I know. Many thanks, sir!
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You’re welcome! As you can see, there’s a ton of stuff on that website.
 
Very cool story, and nice work by the CFI/controller. The funny part is that I've seen actual licensed pilots fly longer visual approaches...
 
Anyone else notice in all of the news stories and discussion nobody ever mentions what happened to the pilot. You know, the original pilot.
 
When hearing the story, I thought of how the FAA no longer values a license when hiring controllers. Sure helped here.
 
Silvaire said:
Anyone else notice in all of the news stories and discussion nobody ever mentions what happened to the pilot. You know, the original pilot.
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Yeah, I have been wondering how (s)he is doing myself. Anyone know.??
 
Zeldman said:
Yeah, I have been wondering how (s)he is doing myself. Anyone know.??
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I'm guessing alive, at least. If deceased it would be public knowledge. Wonder if pax #2 was doing CPR while pax #1 was learning how to fly? This is going to be a hell of a story when it all comes out.
 
Incoherent vs incapacitated. Have never heard incoherent before, except for that Las Vegas controller
 
Racerx said:
Incoherent vs incapacitated. Have never heard incoherent before, except for that Las Vegas controller
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I will give the passenger/pilot more than enough slack to cover this little verbal indiscretion. That man deserves a break. And more than one beverage of his choice.

-Skip
 
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