I know about the Delta emergency landing in NY over the weekend, but I have a friend who claims his flight also had an emergency landing - in Jackson MS. Because the pilot had a seizure. :dubious: And there was no co-pilot so a passenger had to land the plane. :dubious: :dubious:
Now, I’d think something like that would be pretty newsworthy but I haven’t found any hits on my favorite search engines. But before I call shenanigans I figured I’d check in with the Dope.
So - did a major airline have an emergency landing due to pilot seizure over the weekend?
Absolutely nothing to indicate it either on the national or Jackson, MS news sites. Also, it’s, shall we say, extremely unlikely that a commercial airline flight wouldn’t have a co-pilot. What airline was your friend supposedly flying?
I couldn’t even find any news reports from over the weekend that suggested even a private plane made an emergency landing with an unlicensed passenger at the controls.
Simply no. Your friend was not flying on a commercial flight that did not have a two pilots at the controls when the flight departed.
Now, there was a recent incident where a flight attendant helped one of the pilots land the plane when the second pilot was incapacitated. But the flight started with two pilots, and the attendant’s help was not an absolute necessity. She helped the remaining pilot stay focused on flying the plane and would have been invaluable in case of trouble.
Also, many flights have one or more pilots on board as passengers making their way to one place or another. This is common with pilots living in different cities than those in which they are based for work purposes.
In any case, two pilots are required for commercial operation for the very reason that one may become disabled.
The FAA has a log on their web site that displays most aircraft incidents and accidents in the past ten days, commerical and non-commerical. Military accidents are not posted.
There is stuff that doesn’t make the site (I’ve responded to incidents that didn’t make it), I don’t know exactly what the threshold is to be included. It does seem to cover everything from non-event incidents to oh-my type accidents. A pilot having a seizure would likely be there. Events that happen on weekends are usually posted on the following Monday.
The only event showing this weekend in New York was a Delta CRJ that landed in New York City (didn’t say which airport) with a gear problem, nothing else in the whole state. I call BS.
It depends on the type of plane, not necessarily if it is a commercial op. The airlines all (to my knowledge) use aircraft certificated for two pilots. A 737, an Airbus A-320 etc all require two pilots. However, charter companies often use aircraft that are certified for single pilot operation, such as some of the smaller Cessna Citations.
You’re right that if the friend did experience such a situation, it wasn’t on an airliner. But it could have been a commercial operation of some sort. This happened a year or so ago when the pilot of a King Air died shortly after takeoff and a passenger took over and landed. The passenger was a rated pilot, but had no experience in that type of plane.