US pilot dies during flight, forcing plane to make emergency landing
An American Airlines pilot has died on a red-eye flight from Phoenix to Boston, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing
Carrying 147 passengers and five crew members, American Airlines Flight 550 left Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport just before midnight and was scheduled to land at Logan Airport around 8 am local time on Monday when the captain became ill in mid-flight and the Airbus A320 was forced to land at Hancock Airport in Syracuse, New York.
In an audio from the cockpit obtained by Live ATC.net, the co-pilot is heard calling the control tower for “a medical emergency. Captain is incapacitated, request handling for runway one zero landing.”
The passengers were only told that the pilot was "feeling unwell."
Passenger Peter McSwiggin said, “The flight attendant came on and told us to fasten our seat belts…Her voice was quivering,” said. “So, I knew it was way beyond an illness.”
Describing the incident to reporters in Boston, passengers said there was a quick descent; they felt some turbulence and then a member of the flight crew announced that the captain wasn’t feeling well.
The co-pilot took over the flight and had a hard but safe landing in Syracuse.
The passengers commended the co-pilot who had apparently took control of the plane with aplomb during the incident.
“Whatever happened in that cockpit, none of us will know; that co-pilot did a great job,” one passenger said. “All of our lives were in his hands at that point.”
The pilot’s name has not been made public and there is no word yet on the cause of death.
Pilots’ death during a flight is a rarity; however, seven pilots with the US airlines and one charter pilot have died during flights since 1994, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
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