Its getting really quiet in the forum.............can you hear the echo......
Anyways back to the topicmsnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 11:38 a.m. ET April 13, 2009
FORT MYERS, Fla. - A passenger landed a twin-engine plane at Southwest Florida International Airport on Sunday after the pilot died in flight, saving himself and four others.
Federal Aviation Administration officials say the pilot died after takeoff from Marco Island Executive Airport. The plane was on autopilot and climbing past 10,000 feet at the time.
The passenger who took the controls has been licensed for single-engine planes for 20 years, but isn't certified to fly the King Air 200 plane, a large luxury model.
To instruct him, an air traffic controller called a friend in Connecticut who is rated to fly the King Air aircraft. The plane landed safely in about 15 to 20 minutes.
The plane had been headed to Jackson, Miss.
The Naples Daily News reported that Steven Wallace, a representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association in Miami, said "our controller who was working the afternoon rush tried to acknowledge him (the pilot) and give him climbing instructions and he never responded to us."
Wallace said the controller was like a "traffic policeman standing in the highway in the middle of rush hour. The traffic on the highway doesn’t stop. (The controller was) trying to work all of these other airplanes while this emergency was going on."
The names of the pilot and passengers were not immediately available.
Due to FAA rules, the names of the controllers involved were not released.
Federal Aviation Administration officials say the pilot died after takeoff from Marco Island Executive Airport. The plane was on autopilot and climbing past 10,000 feet at the time.
The passenger who took the controls has been licensed for single-engine planes for 20 years, but isn't certified to fly the King Air 200 plane, a large luxury model.
To instruct him, an air traffic controller called a friend in Connecticut who is rated to fly the King Air aircraft. The plane landed safely in about 15 to 20 minutes.
The plane had been headed to Jackson, Miss.
The Naples Daily News reported that Steven Wallace, a representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association in Miami, said "our controller who was working the afternoon rush tried to acknowledge him (the pilot) and give him climbing instructions and he never responded to us."
Wallace said the controller was like a "traffic policeman standing in the highway in the middle of rush hour. The traffic on the highway doesn’t stop. (The controller was) trying to work all of these other airplanes while this emergency was going on."
The names of the pilot and passengers were not immediately available.
Due to FAA rules, the names of the controllers involved were not released.
