What if both pilots have a medical problem onboard?
heatster666 asked:
What if both pilots have a medical problem onboard? who would take over the plane and land it?
- I.E, something major such as a heart attack etc.
NO stupid answers please!
Please note im talking about an older aircraft which does not have an “auto land”. =)
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What if both pilots have a medical problem onboard? who would take over the plane and land it?
- I.E, something major such as a heart attack etc.
NO stupid answers please!
Please note im talking about an older aircraft which does not have an “auto land”. =)
July 18th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Any passenger who wants to live. Given the breadth of skills of many people, a 50/50 chance with someone at the controls is better than a 0% chance with no-one at the controls. oldhombre
July 21st, 2010 at 4:16 am
didn’t u see airplane movie? if stewardess cant fly theres an inflatable pilot.. Pedro S
July 22nd, 2010 at 6:03 pm
me.
on a more serious note, there is probably another pilot on board that can get the plane in - more of an ‘executive decision’ thing than ‘airplane’ although the manual inflation of the autopilot was pretty funny.
if you are a non-pilot, you’d be able to fly, but you ain’t gunna be able to land! oh, the really big planes have an autoland feature, so i guess you could just press the button and hope for the best! patrick m
July 25th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
acording to hollywood anyone can fly a plane, all they need is a grounded alcoholic pilot on the ground to talk them down. Michael H
July 27th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
We’d all be Rubber Ducked lol
but as said above im sure someone could take the controls and be talked through things by Air Traffic Control. Might be a bumpy landing but hey isnt it always lol Nickii
July 28th, 2010 at 2:06 am
This was tested on Myth Busters. Adam & Jaime have no flight training and crashed horribly when let loose in a simulator. The biggest problem is that they couldn’t read the new glass instruments. But, when they made radio contact with a pilot, they were able to land the plane. Not pretty, but they would have lived. I’m sure there are licensed pilots on most flights as passengers. Even someone with a private pilot’s license could land the plane with little or no damage. D W
July 29th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I asked my chief pilot an ex DC-9 pilot what he thought the odds of Sunday pilot landing a transport category aircraft without drama was. He was pretty sure that they would stall it in when they put down full flaps, due to the fact you have come up on the power so much due to the drag.
If both pilots got sick they would have to be passed out to not be useful, they are gonna fly it till they cant. Puking is not gonna make them jump up and say ” I cant do this “. To have both of them sick can happen but chances are you would never ever know. Cause they will NOT give up, they don’t want to let anyone else land either cause they want to live… Michiganpilot
July 30th, 2010 at 11:51 am
if it’s a modern airliner with an autoland capability then it wouldn’t much of a problem i would think. just get the guy to descend to 3000ft early (well before 10nm), set the autobrake on max, engage the approach mode and keep the autopilot on. the plane would land itself quite nicely. when the plane slows down, just get the guy to set the park brake and that’s it. pretty simple really. the thing is, if there isn’t a pilot on board then this would be done by a cabin crew rather than ’some ol’ joe’. huckleberry58
July 31st, 2010 at 12:52 am
It would be a very unlikely scenario, but alot of times there is a pilot (not part of the crew) jumpseating to another airport. They would be the most likely candidate, but outside of that some regular joe would just have to step up. snoodshooter
August 3rd, 2010 at 8:32 am
Commercial pilots have to have 2 comprehensive medical exams per year if they’re over 40, and 1 per year if under 40 (in Canada anyway).
It’s unlikely you’d have 2 pilots both get so sick that they can’t control the plane.
In the event though, there’s probably some form of pilot onboard, or at least a flight attendant who is a little familiar with aviation.
They can just let someone on the radio tell them what to do.
It’s complicated to fly properly, but most people should be able to follow basic instructions to at least get the plane down somewhat safely.
Or everyone could just panic and die. Bindi Stingray
August 5th, 2010 at 11:12 am
This was on myth busters where they had to try to land a plane with Zero flight time and they both crashed. so then they both tried again but this time with the help of Air traffic control (ATC) and they both made it down safely
Note: they were both on simulators Mike
August 7th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
The passengers should strap in and execute a mass ejection. The seats double as a parachute, that button on your arm rest that never seems to do anything is the ejection button, only activated by a flight attendant during a double pilot incapacitation. I found this out by accident when I actually paid attention to the preflight briefing the flight attendants do. That day i was late and didn’t have time to grab a magazine. Alloy Boy
August 8th, 2010 at 12:27 am
Most of the women on board could fly & land it, it doesn’t have a reverse as fare as i know sailor
August 9th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
most long haul flights have 2 crews nowadays. CaptainRowdy
August 10th, 2010 at 10:29 am
The “both pilots incapacitated” scenario has NEVER happened in the history of commercial aviation. NOT ONCE. It is not likely ever to happen, either. Pilots are healthy, by law, and the same thing would never happen to both of them at once.
Also, the NTSB did a study about ten years ago, and discovered that about 85 percent of all flights are carrying at least one pilot qualified in the same or a similar type of aircraft.
So even if the “thing” did happen, the chances of an unqualified person having to attempt to land the machine are vanishingly remote.
So don’t worry about it. It won’t happen. aviophage
August 12th, 2010 at 2:11 am
nose dive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sam i am