So did I miss a thread on the real life Airplane! (Passenger landing an airplane)?

[Philander Seabury]

Great story. Saw it on tv and it looked pretty darn smooth to me. They say Stryker  listened carefully when Robert Stack talked him down.

 

[Bikeguy]

12 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

Great story.

Wow..  a happy ending.

https://www.airlineratings.com/news/passenger-no-idea-lands-plane-pilot-falls-ill/

[Kirby]

I'd have had a lot of salty language in my message to ground control if I were that passenger.

[Parr8hed]

Were they on instruments?

[Philander Seabury]

1 hour ago, Parr8hed said:

Were they on instruments?

Sheesh, I hope not for his first time!

[Tizeye]

2 hours ago, Parr8hed said:

Were they on instruments?

Probably not when never flew before and "don't know where I am but can see the coastline". At worst would have been on auto-pilot and would have to override it. While not noted in the article, he was lucky as the ATC was also an instructor pilot. Many  ATC are not even pilots or have no experience with the particular plane.

A noteworthy one was another that was in Florida where the pilot died and the passenger landed the plane, but had basic flight training decades earlier and had just started back as a student pilot. More complex plane as was a twin engine King Aire rather than this single engine Cessna (not a trainer but advanced model). They had to locate a King Aire pilot to assist ATC and even with the passengers flight training, disengaged auto-pilot and manually controlled.  Interesting YouTube video documenting event. 

 

[Wilbur]

1 hour ago, Philander Seabury said:

Sheesh, I hope not for his first time!

It would not have had a happy ending if they were. 

[12string]

53 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

It would not have had a happy ending if they were. 

Seriously?  We have cars that can parallel park themselves but we still need human intervention to land a plane?  Someone needs to get to work on this

[Kirby]

We were having a discussion at work about which one would have been more difficult:  An experienced pilot like Sully landing a big commercial jet on the Hudson or someone with no experience landing a private plane.  The general opinion was that Sully's was more dramatic and there were more lives at stake, but the individual's landing was probably more difficult if he really had no experience at all.

@Wilbur - what's your vote?

[Wilbur]

1 hour ago, Kirby said:

We were having a discussion at work about which one would have been more difficult:  An experienced pilot like Sully landing a big commercial jet on the Hudson or someone with no experience landing a private plane.  The general opinion was that Sully's was more dramatic and there were more lives at stake, but the individual's landing was probably more difficult if he really had no experience at all.

@Wilbur - what's your vote?

I would agree.  Both happened in near ideal weather conditions and that created opportunity for both. A light airplane is pretty easy to fly but if he really had no exposure, then getting it on the ground at an airport is pretty good.  Now, there was a lot more risk to lives on Sully's flight and landing an underwing engine jet on the water can go really wrong.  Skill to Sully, luck and lack of panic to the light aircraft passenger. 

[Wilbur]

3 hours ago, 12string said:

Seriously?  We have cars that can parallel park themselves but we still need human intervention to land a plane?  Someone needs to get to work on this

Most light aircraft don't have an autopilot let alone a Cat3 auto land autopilot.   So far, the best fix is the aircraft parachute on Cirrus aircraft. 

The parachute has saved more than a few lives so far.  The most spectacular, below.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/05/13/small-plane-crash-mid-air-collision-cherry-creek-reservoir-colorado/