It finally happened; Passenger lands plane in Fla. after pilot dies

[IFLYHI]

It's happened before.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/3678473/detail.html

Yes it has... This is one that I know of. Happened in 2004. Plane was a Malibu.

LEBANON, N.H. -- The daughter of a couple who fell ill while flying their small plane in New Hampshire said Monday that her parents died of complications related to strokes.

Jennifer Truman landed the small plane Aug. 9 after making a frantic call for help when her father, William Truman, collapsed while he was piloting. William Truman fell ill shortly after taking off from Laconia Airport for a flight to New York.

Diane Truman also fell ill while Jennifer Truman was trying to land the plane. Her parents were hospitalized after the successful landing. William Truman died Saturday night at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Diane Truman died Sunday.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

ummmmm....no they shouldn't. Give him a sack of money if you want, but an honorary multi license with zero training?

I don't think you've had your coffee yet!

 

[captain dad]

I know it's happened in small planes but in a chartered King Air 200? I think this is the biggest. Lucky that guy was a pilot. Nice job southern dude.

This link has the controler tapes.

In the Audio on five mile final the dude says, "I got a dead pilot sitting next to me." The dead pilot was falling forward on to the controls the whole way down the slope. Wow.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/apr/13/wings-and-lot-prayers-passenger-speaks-landing-pla/

AUDIO: Passenger speaks of landing plane safely after pilot dies

FORT MYERS — A little instinct and a lot of prayer played a role in Sunday’s emergency landing of an Air King 200 at Southwest Florida International Airport.
Click here for the audio of the landing of the airplane.
“I went into a zone of focused fear and adrenaline,” said Doug White, 56, in an interview Monday while trying to explain how he was able to keep it together throughout the ordeal.
When pilot Joe Cabuk suffered a heart attack right after take off from Marco Island, White knew he needed help — from experts and from above. Despite having a pilot’s license, he had never flown the faster, larger Air King 200, let alone landed one safely to save his family.
In a serious tone, he told his wife, Terri, 55, and two daughters, ages 16 and 18: “You all start praying hard.” Behind him, his wife trembled. Sixteen-year-old Bailey cried. Eighteen-year-old Maggie threw up.
Meanwhile, White remained calm and collected.
Ten minutes into the flight, when the plane was at around 4,000 to 5,000 feet, White said he realized something was wrong with Cabuk, a retired Air Force pilot and instructor who was the Director of Flight Ops for Monroe Air Center in Louisiana.
Cabuk, 67, was looking down at his lap, but there wasn’t anything to stare at, White said.
“I knew we were in trouble,” said White, adding that the plane was on autopilot and kept ascending thousands of feet higher.
After briefly trying to move Cabuk to the passenger cabin, White told his wife to get back into the passenger cabin and stay with their daughters.
He then turned to the one thing he knew how operate on the Air King 200 — the radio.
“I need some help quick,” White said, recalling what he told Miami air traffic controllers after declaring an emergency.
White’s previous flight experience included approximately 130 hours in a Cessna 172, but nothing as big as the Super King Air two-engine turboprop aircraft.
According to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the moment the transmission from the plane came through, every controller working in that jurisdiction area began to lighten the load of the two controllers who began to work the incident. One controller was called in because of her extensive pilot experience.
Once they got White on the right heading, a third controller at the Miami air traffic control center stepped in to coordinate the rerouting of all aircraft in the area and transmitted emergency information to those at Southwest Florida International Airport. The controller with pilot experience talked to White, to help him fly the plane, while another controller worked traffic in the same area.
The controllers in Fort Myers then took over the flight. One called a friend, who was a certified pilot in the King Air, for technical advice. The friend pulled out his flight checklists, manuals and cockpit layout sheets and issued instructions through the controller to another controller, who then relayed that information to White.
At one point, White did try to reengage the autopilot, to maintain the correct altitude near the end of the flight, but apparently Cabuk had set the altitude and the flight’s original destination into the autopilot.
White had to manually fly the plane onto Southwest Florida International Airport with air traffic controllers walking him through the procedure.
He remembered asking controllers about the runway.
“I told them, ‘I need the longest runway you got in Florida,’” White said.
As White approached the runway, a controller said his descent looked good.
“It ain’t over till it’s over, friend,” White responded.
After a period of silence, White came back on the radio and in a relieved voice said, “We’re down buddy. Thank you.”
The landing, however, was a bit bittersweet for White and his family.
White said emergency medical personnel worked on Cabuk for about 30 minutes after landing, but they were unable to revive him.
“He was gone,” said White, who had known Cabuk since January. “A good man died.”
White and his family were returning home after attending his brother Jeff’s funeral on Saturday.
An expert says White’s flight experience probably saved his family.
Robert Losurdo, owner of Tampa-based flight school In Flight Review, said the King Air is a sophisticated aircraft, but said instruments and gauges vary only slightly from one small aircraft to another. A pilot with single-engine experience would have had a good feel for stall and airspeed, said Losurdo, and could follow directions relayed from someone with knowledge of the cockpit’s layout.
“It would be a little awkward for him not to have the experience (with a twin-engine plane),” said Losurdo. “Having a single-engine license made all of the difference. If he didn’t have any flying experience they wouldn’t be here today.”
The family was still in a bit of a fog on Monday afternoon, White said, after they had finally made it back home to Louisiana at 3 a.m.
He’s grateful his family is alive and well, but White said it’s the “what ifs?” that haunt him.
Cabuk had originally been scheduled to first fly into Jackson, where White would disembark, and then continue flying on to Monroe County, Louisiana with the rest of the family.
“If it would have happened there,” said White as his voice drifted to silent.
In the aftermath of the ordeal, White said he needed to give his heartfelt thanks to the air traffic controllers.
“I have got to sing their praises,” said White, adding that he was trying to track down the names of the Miami and Fort Myers air traffic controllers who helped him and his family. “They don’t get near enough credit for what they do.”
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen reiterated Monday that FAA guidelines prevent the agency from releasing the names of air traffic controllers, in spite of White’s efforts to hold the three air controllers up as heroes.
Bergen said the air traffic controllers don’t want the attention and simply want to go back to work and continue doing their jobs.
White said he’d also like to thank the Lee County Port Authority Airport Police, the Lee County Port Authority Airport Rescue and Fire Department, and Sky Venture at the airport.
“I want to give credit where credit is due,” said White.
Staff writer Leslie Williams and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

[FLYLOW22]

He sounds like a real Meat n Taters man! Awesome!

Fisch, sorry. This man may be more awesome than you.

Now you know what I had to deal with when flying with you... "I gotta keep this dead guy off the controls!"

:smash:

 

[fischman]

He sounds like a real Meat n Taters man! Awesome!

Fisch, sorry. This man may be more awesome than you.

Now you know what I had to deal with when flying with you... "I gotta keep this dead guy off the controls!"

:smash:

No. He isn't. I've landed hundreds of planes thousands of times. I am more awesome than the awesomest of awesome.

I even landed a couple of times when you dorked up the approach.:laugh:

 

[FLYLOW22]

No. He isn't. I've landed hundreds of planes thousands of times. I am more awesome than the awesomest of awesome.

I even landed a couple of times when you dorked up the approach.:laugh:

Only cause you kept pushing on the yoke like a dead pilot. Sheesh!

 

[Amish RakeFight]

What if...

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2009/090414pilotsave.html?WT.mc_id=ebrief

White, 56, a private pilot with about 230 hours flight time in single-engine Cessna 172s sat in the right seat of a chartered King Air 200 with his wife and two teenaged daughters in the passenger cabin. White, owner of an equipment leasing company, had learned to fly in 1991 but set flying aside immediately after obtaining a private pilot certificate.

In January, he’d resumed flying and had logged 150 hours in preparation for an instrument rating he plans to earn this spring. Joe Cabuk, a charter pilot, was in command of the King Air during the Easter Sunday flight and guided it north from Marco Island.

“I’d only been in the King Air once before ,” said White who had recently bought the aircraft and leased it back to an air charter firm. “I was interested in listening to air traffic control and looking out the window and learning about the IFR system. And I don’t know why I did this, but I remember asking Joe what button to push to use the radio.”

“I looked over and his chin was on his chest,” White said. “He made a loud, guttural sound, kind of a groan, and his eyes rolled back, and his hands never left his lap. It was quick, it was sudden, and it was final.”

If you think about it, this guy was somehow prepared for what followed. Kind of interesting that he hadn't flown in 18 years and coincidentally received 150 hours of dual for his instrument ride in the months right before this incident.

What if...

...this guy had never flown an airplane before.

...he had been yucking it up in the back with a few cocktails instead of RIGHT SEAT. How soon would he have realized something wasn't right?

...he hadn't received those recent hours. 150 hrs within the last couple of months vs. not flying in 18 yrs makes a big difference.


.

 

[Ticker]

There but for the grace of God go I.

As a married mand and father of two daughters, I can't even imagine what was going through his mind.

I raise my glass to pilot and controller. Well done gentlemen.
:beer:

 

[TFlite]

What if...

We are going to play around with this scenario in the simulator tomorrow (full motion King Air 200 simulator). The local Fox news station called and has asked to come out and film a short segment for a news segment showing how difficult or easy this was.

They are going to get a low-time single-engine pilot and put him in the right seat and see how he does. One of our instructors will be PIC for the take-off and initial configuration, and another will be manning the instructor station and acting as ATC.

We'll see whether the pilot/controller can consistently get down safely.

We may even try it with a non-pilot. My guess is that the low-time pilot will be fine (since the weather will be CAVU) and that it will be very difficult for the non-pilot.

I'll post a link to the segment if it ever airs...

Matt
www.FlyRightInc.com


-- What if...
--
-- ...this guy had never flown an airplane before.

 

[Mike Jenvey]

Super team work from all concerned.

We have the occasional excitement in the UK too - last year, a pilot went blind in flight & was guided down safely.