"I've never seen anything like it" Pilot suffers heart attack - wife takes over the controls
A married couple were traveling in a small plane in the USA when the pilot collapsed. His wife takes over the controls and lands with the help of the air traffic controllers - even though she has no flying experience.
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- A 78-year-old pilot suffered a heart attack during a flight in the USA.
- As a result, his wife managed to land the plane thanks to the help of air traffic controllers.
- Despite the safe landing, the 78-year-old died shortly afterwards in hospital.
Because the pilot was unable to continue flying due to a heart attack, his wife landed a small plane safely in the USA. The couple were on their way from Henderson in Nevada to Monterey in California in a twin-engine turboprop plane when the 78-year-old suffered a medical emergency, as reported by several US media outlets and confirmed by the FAA.
His wife, who had no previous flying experience, then reportedly took over the controls. With the help of the air traffic controllers, who gave her detailed instructions over the radio, the woman managed to land the small plane safely in Bakersfield, California.
Her husband was then taken to hospital, but died there, as the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote, citing the man's company.
"To my knowledge, this is unprecedented," Ron Brewster, the director of airports in Kern County, California, told CBS. "I've never seen anything like this in my entire career." Both the woman and the Beechcraft King Air 90 aircraft survived the landing unscathed.
dpa