United Pilot Dies After Inflight Heart Attack

[WYOMINGPILOT]

It all goes back to the FAA medical process. It should be much more thorough and a much lower pass rate. In Japan less than 50% pass a medical the first time and it is just as difficult every time you take one. Time to toughen up the standards and enforce the process. RIP!!!

 

[jonjuan]

Had a friend at a major airline die in the motel room on an overnight. 56. So what does that tell us?

Retire by 55 and you might add a few years to your life by eating better, exercising more, reducing the BP by spending more time with the grandkids, painting, playing golf, avoiding DVT, avoiding a constant laboratory of germs in a pressurized test tube, etc. etc.

 

[eaglesview]

You're worse than anyone you would assail as "get out of my seat" and you're just as bad as any pilot who crossed a picket line. You're weak.

Hmmmm

 

[Flopgut]

Hmmmm

Hmmmmmm, what? You got something to say striker? Let's hear it? This guy professed numerous times on here that if he missed age change date to keep his seniority he would come back as a new hire. I would have been the first to give him respect for doing so but that's not what he did. No different than a scab, all he wanted was the seniority. Just like a scab, he has to make excuses. He told us all he would set an example and he had the opportunity. Well, he set an example all right.

We don't need another thread about medical standards and how unfair certain rules are at certain times of certain pilots lives. Advanced age is just the result of a bunch of opportunists selfish behavior. Period. We're all 1/2 broke, pensionless, dead pilots just cruising along at this point. Waiting to see what knife gets stuffed in our backs by you guys who came up in the 80s. This is no longer a career. It's not really even much of a profession at this point. Anybody thinking they can escape this guys' same fate (die at the controls)? Good luck.


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[flyboyike]

Once the captain's body cools, the "get out of my seat crowd" will be all over this. Never-mind the facts: There was practically no compromise in safety as all F/O's hold a captain's FAA type rating in the aircraft they're flying and this F/O had to be under age 60 by FAR. The FAA backup system worked perfectly; as it should, the same the failure of an A/C pack, or a hydraulic pump: Redundancy works, it provides practically the same level of safety.

The captain's name was, Henry Skillern. RIP sir, and condolences to his family.

Had Capt Skillern exited the industry gracefully, he could have been with the very family to whom we are now sending our condolences. Instead, he died in a hospital in Boise.

I sure hope those three extra years were worth it.

 

[XTW]

Godspeed Captain Skillern.

 

[FLYLOW22]

Achieve age 70... Better add a 3rd back up pilot on all flights.

Could be great for hiring.

 

[paid4training]

I have to put some of the blame on the lifestyle many have to choose to get to his point. In between flights run to mcdonalds cause it's fast or quick pizza because that's all there is available in the terminal. Pilots have the same diet as truckers when they are on trips. This should be a wake up call to the young guys about their eating choices.

Fly safe and eat healthy folks!!!

 

[Dan Roman]

The older you get, the odds go up. Probably exponentially if you are unhealthy or have hereditary/genetic dispositions.

I saw the stat somewhere, but apparently, if you are predisposed to an early heart condition, it will most likely show up before you are 60. If you make it to 60 than your chances of a sudden heart attack go down for awhile.
Obviously lifestyle is the biggest factor though.

 

[Dan Roman]

Had Capt Skillern exited the industry gracefully, he could have been with the very family to whom we are now sending our condolences. Instead, he died in a hospital in Boise.

I sure hope those three extra years were worth it.

Perhaps a little sympathy for Captain Skillen is in order rather than point fingers to make a point based on your own wants? He had the pension that was promised to him stolen from him and may have had no choice but to keep flying. Or perhaps he still liked to fly airplanes, either way you are not qualified to judge him.
RIP Captain Skillen.