Mxsmanic wrote:

F. Baum writes:

Jim, I caught just the parts of the show where J and A tried to land
the plane with some coaching from the sim instructor (Mainly to see
how the instructor would do this). These portions of the show were
amazingly brief (Possibly for security reasons ?) . The stuff they did
show was scary and I doubt they could have gotten awhay with some of
it in a real plane. I do watch the show for its "Infotaiment" value
but I remain unconvinced that someone could actually be talked down in
an airliner. I think it has been tried a time or two in GA after the
pilot became incapacitated.

A small GA airplane is completely different from an airliner, but in any case,
it has been done successfully in small planes. No circumstances have ever
required it in airliners, but it's certainly doable.

It's important to remember that the would-be pilot/savior would have
tremendous motivation to get it right the first time. When thinking
through that scenario, I always pictured having three or four people
in the cockpit - each with a limited job that they'd be walked through
by an expert on the radio... maybe each with a cell phone connecting
them to individual team members on the ground. Then it's just up to
those experts on the ground to talk each of them through about 1/4 of
the process of getting the plane on the ground in one piece (as
opposed to making a flawless landing on the numbers).

Of course, then they'd all be arrested upong landing for using their
cellphones in flight.

Mark "it's the price you pay for survival I guess" Hickey