After the pilot flying the plane had a medical emergency, a cool-headed passenger of a Cessna Caravan successfully landed the plane at Palm Beach. The landing, which was captured on video by at least two different witnesses, was so good it probably wouldn’t have been noticed as anything outside the ordinary.
This is brand new video (courtesy of Jeff Chandler) of a passenger landing a plane today at PBIA.
His pilot had passed out, and the passenger with zero flight experience was forced to land the plane.
Team coverage of this amazing landing is on @WPBF25News at 11. pic.twitter.com/jFLIlTp6Zs
— Ari Hait (@wpbf_ari) May 11, 2022
It all started when the passenger radioed air traffic controllers that the pilot had gone “incoherent” and it was a “serious situation.” Indeed, it was. After it became clear to controllers that the pilot had no flight experience, they guided him through the process of keeping the plane “wings level” and vectoring him to Palm Beach, which has long runways and emergency response teams at the ready.
It wasn’t your run-of-the-mill small plane. While it has a single engine and propeller, the non-pressurized plane can carry up to nine occupants, and it is relatively fast by small-plane standards.
Yet that pilot/passenger executed a picture-perfect landing at Palm Beach.
It’s not yet known who that flying passenger is or how the pilot, who was brought to a local hospital, is doing.
See the video and watch the story unfold in this excellent local news coverage of the story.
