 Beechcraft King Air |
By LESLIE WILLIAMS NaplesNews.com
FORT MYERS, FL — It could have ended so differently.
Five people on board a plane that took off from Marco Island Executive Airport Sunday got back on the ground safely after the pilot of their private plane died mid-air.
One passenger assisted by three air traffic controllers and a pilot relaying cockpit instructions from Connecticut worked together to avoid further tragedy.
Steven Wallace, a representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association in Miami, said the flight turned harrowing soon after take-off, as the plane was in the process of climbing to 10,000 feet. The pilot checked in with the Miami air control tower once he left the air space monitored by the Marco controllers.
“Our controller who was working the afternoon rush tried to acknowledge him and give him climbing instructions and he never responded to us,” said Wallace, who was present during the radio discussions and monitored the radar to watch the plane’s progress.
Eventually, another voice came on the radio from the twin-engine plane. One of five passengers on board said the pilot had passed out and that the plane was still climbing on auto-pilot. What followed was a dicey 15 or 20 minutes in which several controllers worked to continue directing the normal flow of Sunday afternoon air traffic, all while helping the passenger disengage auto pilot on the plane and begin descending to Southwest Florida International Airport, which was, by then, the nearest runway.
At one point, said Wallace, the man who took control of the aircraft said he believed the pilot was dead.
Found by MJ.
He ate the fish?
That’s not a superhuman task if you’ve got 150 recent hours in a single. There’s a lot more of everything to watch out for, things happen faster, but it boils down to approach, landing speed and flare.
I used to practice GCAs (ground control approaches) once a month for IFR, a military base might have been a better choice for a landing.
Guy and controllers did a great job. Applause all around.
Outstanding job.
The picture is of a King Air 200 BTW
I fly a King Air everyday, and after awhile it’s just like a big Cessna. But given the circumstances the guy did a great job!
John, check this scoop on some bird flu action for No Agenda! Flick your lighter some more Adam, and give us the straight dope on this story here!
http://abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread454216/pg1
[Please drop the WWW from URLs as WordPress doesn’t display it properly… plus it’s unnecessary. – ed.]
God, I hate when shit like this happens.
#4, jer105, I always enjoy flying a King Air or a Queen Air. They’re fine airplanes, and wonder if he had a newer glass cockpit to help him out. But the help from ATC was a fine job!
I didn’t even know Beech made a King Air “55”. 90 series, 100 series, even the T44-A. Beech made a Baron 55, though.
Land this sucker right the first time you ever take the controls or you and your friends are a fireball. No second chances. Everybody should get a thumbs up. Time to kiss mother earth and drink one good shot of something.
They shouldn’t have served the salmon mousse on that flight.
Kudos to all involved! The private pilot with few hours, the score of air traffic controllers, the people who walked through the checklist and don’t ever forget the emergency crews at the ready.
Government took the pilot out with an EMP.
#5 MPEGzero
I wish I had the imagination to tell bullshit like this video. Is everything a conspiracy with some people?
Nevermind, weak minded people see crap like this around every corner…..
I should have posted at least one piece to back up my side of the story.
How long does it take for someone to just search Google for the Civic Center, look at the satellite map and then realize you can’t drive 200 feet in any direction on a gravel road to get to some secret underground government silo?
More conspiracy theory whackjob bullshit.
We have enough real stuff to worry about without making this crap up.
It would be interesting to know if someone is working on a auto pilot that will fly back to a airport and land the plane. This to me would not be so hard to do with GPS. Because I wonder if this would have turned out differently if someone was not at least familiar with flying a small aircraft.
Wait a minute, this was the plot line that eventually rolled through every 70’s tv show. Life imitating art?
Not so amazing…
“The passenger who took the controls and was in contact with the control tower in Miami, and subsequently in Fort Myers, has single-engine plane experience, said Bergen. He had been a pilot since at least 1990.”
With that logic, he should also be able to land the space shuttle.
RBG