A passenger with no flight training was able to land a Cessna Caravan in Palm Beach on Tuesday after the pilot collapsed at the controls. The passenger, Darren Harrison, of Lakeland, Florida, one of two passengers, was able to contact air traffic control. "I’ve got a serious situation here,” the passenger said in his initial call. “My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane." After some initial guidance from controllers to get the aircraft stabilized, he was directed to Palm Beach and controller Robert Morgan, a former flight instructor, talked him in.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….
RIP Bob
Mr. Berge, thank you for the well-written article. I was getting excited about possibly meeting RLT at a future Airventure or other aviation event, and then read that he had died. So often we discover people and the lives they lead, and we think, it would so cool to meet that person, only to find they have gone and we have missed any opportunity to shake their hand and talk with them. So all I can do now is think on in wonder of this Light in the aviation world that has gone out. RIP, Mr. Taylor, sorry I missed you.
While I never had the chance to meet RLT face to face, I had numerous conversations with him about a Great Lakes project I am working. He knew the airplane, and he personally gave a previous owner an award at one of their fly ins in the 60s. It was inspiring to hear him talk about it and the long deceased owner. He even sent me some pictures and documentation he had stored in his extensive files.
I will say one thing though, his handwriting was atrocious. I could not even come close to deciphering it. I had to get his Son to translate it. I would just shake my head when his Son would read back what RLT had written. I kept saying, “is that what that says”??
All good memories and just makes me laugh to think about it…
The first time we went to the Antique Airfield Bob was the only one around. He didn’t know us from anybody, but was very welcoming, very friendly. He told story after story and it felt like he would have been happy to talk to us all day. Great guy who had a great impact on many people, us included.
Gee, another name to add to my long list of people I wish I had met! Great article Paul. As another history major (concentrating in early naval aviation) I am guessing that “the ubiquitous Stearman biplanes” the Navy used at Ottumwa were not Stearmans, but rather Naval Aircraft Factory N3Ns. Very versatile trainers the Navy designed and built at their own aircraft factory in Philadelphia, PA. They could be re-configured between floats and landing gear.
Good combo ATC/CFI. Controllers should receive flight training for a better understanding of the system. Not the first time this has happened. Congratulations to Controller Morgan.
I read a report that the passenger “without any flight experience ‘ was in fact a 1,200 hr CFI who had no turbine or 208 experience. I have not seen any corroboration yet however. If that is true, the media gets another black eye for substantial misreporting an aviation event.
Flight experience notwithstanding, handling a new, big airplane would have been very, very intimidating even if familiar with the basic flight controls.
My gut told me something is fishy. But like the previous comments we don’t know yet and don’t want to add to the frenzy:
Pax is very calm during his initial call and throughout the exchanges with ATC. He just could be a cool cat, but he seems nonchalant when describing the pilot as not responsive. There isn’t even a slightly elevated pitch of concern in his voice which struck me as strange
The 208, while being a high-wing Cessna, isn’t a 172 and for a total newbie to keep things level AND land as well as he did is too good to be true.
Apologies to him and kudos if this is all legit, I’m not so convinced.
The passenger who landed the airplane seemed to handle the radios pretty well, knowing how to key the mic to avoid cutting off his words, use of the phonetic alphabet and the airplane’s registration, read the altimeter, etc. I’ve heard pilots who should know much better say “10/4” on frequency. It may be that the person flying just wasn’t familiar with the integrated transponder and comm tuning in the G1000 system likely installed in the Caravan. The smooth, even 270 degree descending turn to align with the runway seen on flight tracking looked pretty good too. The rise of the YouTube Pilot makes me skeptical.
All the more kudos if the passenger had no flying experience. Maybe he flew smaller airplanes, or has a lot of Flight Sim time or something. If all is as presented this was an amazing save.
Watch the above CNN video - at around 0:45, an off-duty controller who was called in to assist was a CFI with 1,200 hours - but none in a Caravan. (He had to download a picture of the panel in order to walk the very newbe pilot through the controls.)
Sounds like the report you read may have conflated the two.
Maybe the pilot gave his passenger an excellent safety briefing…? Speaking of the pilot, all mention of him has disappeared. I hope he is able to recover - sounds like he suffered a stroke, from the “incoherent” comment.
Walk yourself through what this non-pilot allegedly did? Let’s say the last 10 minutes. I would hazard to guess pretty much everyone here understands the dynamics in play during the last 10 minutes of flight and you’re telling me this guy found an airport put a Caravan down on the runway in what appears to be a damn good landing. ? I wonder how much off centerline he was? Very fishy… very very fishy…? I don’t buy it. I just don’t. To many things of pure chance have to come together to achieve the resultant outcome. Way, way to many.
Stranger things have happened. Here’s a very lengthy audio of a flight assist at ORD some years ago. The intro text explains it and then the first 15 minutes of the audio sets the stage.