# Passenger lands plane with help from air traffic control
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 11, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301 "2022-05-11T22:44:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/1 "2022-05-11T22:44:35Z")
Pilot in a Cessna becomes incapacitated.
Passenger radios for help.
Air traffic controller gives instructions to passenger.
Passenger lands plane.
Wow.
> **[Passenger with no flying experience lands plane after pilot becomes...](https://globalnews.ca/news/8826259/passenger-lands-plane-pilot-incapacitated-florida/)**
>
> 'I've got a serious situation here,' the plane passenger told Florida air traffic control after the pilot of his flight became incapacitated in the cockpit.
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/2 "2022-05-11T22:48:03Z")
Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up drinking.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/3 "2022-05-11T22:59:47Z")
Surely you’re not . . . never mind.
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### Author:  [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/4 "2022-05-11T23:02:36Z")
The Pilot must have had Fish for Dinner.
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### Author:  [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/5 "2022-05-11T23:02:56Z")
Good luck. We’re all counting on you.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/6 "2022-05-11T23:26:53Z")
> [@74westy](#):
>
> Surely you’re not . . . never mind.
Yes, I am.
Regards,
Shirley
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### Author:  [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/7 "2022-05-11T23:29:17Z")
Yes, yes, I remember. I had lasagna.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/8 "2022-05-11T23:30:30Z")
A rare victory for FloridaMan!
You hear about this sort of thing occasionally with airliners, but those have so much automation that they can almost (not quite, but almost) land themselves, in good conditions. Cessnas are, as I understand it, much more manual.
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/9 "2022-05-11T23:30:50Z")
An actual serious post (I know, I’ll save you the trouble… surely I can’t be). When I saw “Cessna” in the OP I pictured something like a Cessna 172, probably one of the simplest planes to fly. So I thought yeah, a passenger could probably land that with some instructions. But I see from the article that it was actually a 208. Still single engined, but a turboprop rather than a piston engine. And a bit bigger. And I assume probably a variable pitch prop. So my question for any pilots here – how much more complicated is it to land a Cessna 208 compared to a 172?
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/10 "2022-05-12T02:30:38Z")
If anything a turboprop is easier to operate than a piston engine. The variable pitch isn’t a major issue as it’s an automatic system that varies the prop pitch to maintain the set RPM. A piston engine has a mixture control which can be more critical if mishandled.
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### Author:  [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/11 "2022-05-12T04:00:30Z")
Note I haven’t actually flown a Cessna 208 (biggest I ever “manipulated the controls” on was a 206) but it isn’t really more complicated. The difference is that in the bigger, heavier plane speeds are higher and control responsiveness lower. So harder to get yourself into trouble, but once in trouble harder to get out of it. Landing speeds are also higher (from Wikipedia stall speed 70 mph vs 54 in the 172) which makes things like lining up on the runway correctly more difficult. Less time to do everything you need to do.
The controllers would have cleared everybody else out of his way, so it would have been a long straight in approach to stabilize and get it right. Looking at the videos he bounced it just a little. Certainly many of my student landings were worse. Good job all round.
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### Author:  [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/12 "2022-05-12T06:36:50Z")
Best case is still air or light steady winds in the same direction as the runway. That is the least complex situation for the pilot and those instructing them. Must have been optimal situation as there seems to have been little drama.
Also a smaller plane needs less runway. So touching down late is not as much an issue.
Still a great thing to pull off. The pilot seems to be someone with good feel and hand eye coordination. Good self control too.
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### Author:  [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/13 "2022-05-12T06:47:48Z")
I think is was important to get that pilot to the hospital.
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/14 "2022-05-12T07:54:33Z")
A hospital? What is it?
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/15 "2022-05-12T08:06:53Z")
The passenger-turned-pilot did everything right. He didn’t panic. He called for help. He followed directions.
Being a single-engine helped, less complication than with a multi-engine.
Weather looked great.
Lucky to have an ATC with some flying/instructing experience.
ATC of course got everyone out of his way and helped him set up for a landing.
Good job by all involved, but especially the passenger who took over.
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### Author:  [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/16 "2022-05-12T08:37:44Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#):
>
> A hospital? What is it?
Its a big white building with patients but that’s not important right now.
You’ve got to hope that in a TV interview with the plucky passenger someone has the balls to ask him if he likes gladiator films.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/17 "2022-05-12T16:59:45Z")
Or about his drinking problem.
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2022, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/18 "2022-05-13T07:18:32Z")
I saw someone dubbed him ‘Sully of the Cessna’, which is cool in my book.
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### Author:  [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2022, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/19 "2022-05-13T11:10:29Z")
Wow, good job! No experience flying, although he sounded like he knew his way around a cockpit and - who knows? - might’ve had a go at flying before, informally and with a conscious pilot next to him.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passenger-lands-plane-with-help-from-air-traffic-control/964301/20 "2022-05-14T20:58:33Z")
Yeah, I had that experience once. The PIC (my brother) took off, then showed me how to make minor course and altitude corrections and handed it off to me. “Follow Hway 90 and keep the same altitude.” Easy. In no way, could I have imagined actually landing.
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