"Dana M. Hague" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:22:31 -0400, Mike Ash wrote:

Nearly an interesting piece of data on the simmer-landing-an-airliner
question. The pilot of a King Air had a seizure, and the plane was then
landed by one of his passengers...

Back in the mid 1970's, after all the airplane disaster movies, Air
Progress magzine did a piece on this... they stuck a low time private
pilot in a 727 simulator set up in cruise between NY and Chicago, with
a 727 pilot ready to talk him down. He got it "down" fine.

-Dana
--
In America, anyone can become president. That's one of the risks you take.

Well, the truth is that a normal landing in reasonably calm weather with a
properly functioning aircraft should always be pretty easy--you just have to
know a few of the numbers. Presumably that is the basic concept behind the
AOPA "Pinch Hitter" program. In the extraordinary case such as this,
someone can frequently obtain the needed information be radio or telephone.

OTOH, a lot of pilot training involves the procedures to safely land the
aircraft when the the weather is a little less cooperative, the runway is
the minimum reqauired length, or there is something wrong with the aircraft.

Don't get me wrong, It's always good when things work out; but there's a
tendency toward overstatement in the media and also on usenet.

Peter

BTW, your sig line is terrifying and also well proven!