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80 y/o female lands plane after pilot loses consiousness and dies

brainhulk

brainhulk

Diamond Member
http://news.yahoo.com/passenger-lands-plane-wis-pilot-unconscious-023010004.html

An 80-year-old woman was able to successfully land a twin-engine airplane in northeastern Wisconsin after her husband became unconscious at the controls and died.
Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel says the dispatch center was told just after 5 p.m. Monday that a Cessna about 6 miles south of Sturgeon Bay had declared an emergency.
The pilot, an 81-year-old man from the Sturgeon Bay area, had suffered a medical emergency and was unconscious. His wife, who was the passenger, was flying the plane.
A certified pilot was able to fly alongside the plane and coach the wife. Just after 6 p.m., her right engine ran out of fuel and lost power.
She was able to land at Door County Cherryland Airport. The wife suffered minor injuries. Her husband was pronounced dead.
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amazing! I would've stained my pants most certainly. But I used to fly planes in the top gun video game when I was a kid, so probably not i guess..
 
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At the same age my father took his first and only parachute jump when the plane he was piloting had a catestrophic wing failure. He did fine but lost his glasses on the way down and ended up stuck up a tree.

Baked: no but they have to pass a current medical (unlike driver's licenses).
 
Baked said:
Don't they have a cut off age for people who can fly an airplane?
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There's a limit on how old you can be and still fly commercially. Was recently bumped to 65 IIRC. But AFAIK you can maintain a private pilots license as long as you can still pass the physicals.
 
That must have been horrible for her. Having to try to land a plane and unable to help her husband, who died right next to her🙁

Kudos to her though, for hanging tough.
 
Good luck...we're all counting on you.

airplane_nielsen.jpg
 
Is the shocking part that she did it with her husband dying next to her, or that she landed the plane at all? If was her husband flying, presumably his own plane, which would lead me to believe that she probably had extensive flight experience herself. She wasnt some random passenger. Just because she's an 80yr old woman doesn't mean she's helpless or ignorant.
 
I doubt planes are that hard to fly. I am 100% sure I could land any jet if I needed to. They practically fly themselves these days.
 
Mxylplyx said:
Is the shocking part that she did it with her husband dying next to her, or that she landed the plane at all? If was her husband flying, presumably his own plane, which would lead me to believe that she probably had extensive flight experience herself. She wasnt some random passenger. Just because she's an 80yr old woman doesn't mean she's helpless or ignorant.
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Yup, my guess is she actually knew a thing or two. Well good on her...too bad for her loss
 
amdhunter said:
I doubt planes are that hard to fly. I am 100% sure I could land any jet if I needed to. They practically fly themselves these days.
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If you're airborne and in level flight, you can keep it there until you run out of gas and don't need to know how to fly. If you don't make sudden control movements, you can even navigate a bit without a problem. Landing without knowing how to fly or being assisted by an experienced pilot is nearly impossible, especially in a jet. Landing is the hardest part of flying. Takeoffs are tricky too, but landing is worse.

If you've never been properly instructed, you won't know how to make a proper approach and know how to find the wind first so you don't get smashed into the ground on approach or overshoot/undershoot the runway.

Also, it's obvious she was familiar with the radio and possibly the protocol, since she was able to find guard and make a proper call for help, and then get talked down by the other pilot.
 
Hehe, i probably could have managed it, but then again it got so tedious in simulators that I normally just bailed out over the airfield to complete the mission. 🙂
 
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