Post by Mahnarch on Apr 14, 2009 22:46:39 GMT -5
www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/13/florida.plane.emergency/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- It's a nightmarish scenario straight out of the movies: A passenger is forced to land a plane after its pilot becomes incapacitated.
Passanger Doug White landed this Super King two-engine turboprop after the pilot fell unconscious.
"Descend and maintain 5,000. Just take your time, we'll set you up for the airport," an air traffic controller says.
In a calm voice, a passenger responds: "I need to get my throttle set for this descent. I don't know where to set it at."
The reality was playing aboard a plane over Florida on Sunday in what the National Air Traffic Controllers Association called "an Easter miracle."
The incident began about 1:30 p.m. The plane, a Super King Air two-engine turboprop with four passengers on board, was headed to Jackson, Mississippi, from Marco Island, Florida, about 18 miles south of Naples.
The plane entered the jurisdiction of air traffic control at Miami Center, the facility responsible for high-altitude air traffic in southern Florida and the Caribbean, according to a statement issued by the air traffic controllers association.
The pilot notified controllers that the plane was at 9,000 feet and climbing, said Steve Wallace, Miami Center spokesman for the association. However, a controller at the center tried twice to raise the pilot after that and received no response, Wallace said.
After a few moments, a different voice came over the radio: Passenger Doug White told air traffic controllers the pilot was unconscious and they needed help. His wife and two teenage daughters were flying home to Louisiana with him, he said.
He reported the plane's autopilot was on and the plane was continuing to climb from 10,000 feet.
"I told my girls to pray hard," White later told CNN television affiliate WINK.
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- It's a nightmarish scenario straight out of the movies: A passenger is forced to land a plane after its pilot becomes incapacitated.
Passanger Doug White landed this Super King two-engine turboprop after the pilot fell unconscious.
"Descend and maintain 5,000. Just take your time, we'll set you up for the airport," an air traffic controller says.
In a calm voice, a passenger responds: "I need to get my throttle set for this descent. I don't know where to set it at."
The reality was playing aboard a plane over Florida on Sunday in what the National Air Traffic Controllers Association called "an Easter miracle."
The incident began about 1:30 p.m. The plane, a Super King Air two-engine turboprop with four passengers on board, was headed to Jackson, Mississippi, from Marco Island, Florida, about 18 miles south of Naples.
The plane entered the jurisdiction of air traffic control at Miami Center, the facility responsible for high-altitude air traffic in southern Florida and the Caribbean, according to a statement issued by the air traffic controllers association.
The pilot notified controllers that the plane was at 9,000 feet and climbing, said Steve Wallace, Miami Center spokesman for the association. However, a controller at the center tried twice to raise the pilot after that and received no response, Wallace said.
After a few moments, a different voice came over the radio: Passenger Doug White told air traffic controllers the pilot was unconscious and they needed help. His wife and two teenage daughters were flying home to Louisiana with him, he said.
He reported the plane's autopilot was on and the plane was continuing to climb from 10,000 feet.
"I told my girls to pray hard," White later told CNN television affiliate WINK.
