There have been a few notable events in which a passenger with flight experience has been called on to help. “But in the unlikely event it did, you’d want someone with flying experience if possible, even in small planes.” Thanks to the redundancy and rules in place, a pilotless cockpit is “extremely unlikely to ever happen,” Binstead tells Mental Floss. There are even protocols in place at certain airlines that prevent the pilot and co-pilot from eating the same dinner in case of contamination. ( Co-pilot is an occasionally misunderstood term-a co-pilot, also known as a first officer, is a fully trained pilot entirely capable of performing all the duties of a captain.) For instance, in 2009, when the pilot of a 777 died midflight over the Atlantic, the safe landing of the flight was never in question due to the presence of an extremely experienced first officer and international relief officer.īeyond making sure that there's more than one pilot on board, according to Dan Binstead, flight instructor for FTA Global, a pilot's health is rigorously checked by different agencies around the world ( the FAA oversees medical certificates in the U.S., for example). It's typically depicted as being as simple as getting some instructions from the tower and setting the plane down on the runway-but is that how it would really go down? How Airlines Prepare for a Pilot Emergencyįortunately, it’s never happened in real life, thanks to built-in redundancy: Commercial planes have a pilot and co-pilot and, on long-haul flights, sometimes a relief crew in part to ensure there will always be more capable pilots than necessary. And there are few thrustings-upon more dramatic than the disaster-movie scenario of an airliner’s flight crew being stricken and a non-pilot having to take the wheel and land the plane. Some people are born great, and others have greatness thrust upon them.
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