An air traffic controller described how he helped an inexperienced passenger land an airplane after his pilot was incapacitated.
“I knew the plane flew like any other plane,” Robert Morgan, Palm Beach International Airport (PBIA) controller, told WPBF. “I just knew I had to keep him calm, steer him to the runway and tell him how to reduce the power so he could go down to the landing.”
Mr Morgan was hailed as a hero for his quick thinking and expert guidance, which probably saved many lives as the plane landed safely on the PBIA runway on Tuesday afternoon.
For the air traffic controller – who has worked at the airport for 20 years – the state of emergency began while he was on his lunch break. While reading a book outside the control tower, Chief Controller Gregory Battani called him with alarming news.
“There is a passenger who is piloting a plane that is not a pilot, and the pilot is incapacitated, so they said you have to help them try to land the plane,” recalls Mr Morgan, who told Mr Batani. .
Air traffic controller Robert Morgan poses for a photo with the passenger that he helped land the Cessna Grand Caravan
(WPBF)
Mr Morgan took action. Although he is an experienced flight instructor, he has never flown with the particular Cessna aircraft that the passenger is currently piloting, so he uses a photo of the control panel to guide him.
I said, “Okay, we’ll take you to the track. What do you see now? ”Mr. Morgan told the news station. “He said he had just passed the coastline near Boca.
It wasn’t long before the passenger got off.
“Before I knew it, he said, ‘I’m on earth, how can I turn this thing off?'” Mr Morgan said.
The small plane landed in Palm Beach on Tuesday
(Jeff Chandler / WPBF-TV / Twitter)
Miraculously, the passenger managed to stop the plane safely. When it was all over, he and Mr. Morgan hugged on the pavement.
“He told me he couldn’t wait to go home and hug his pregnant wife,” the air traffic controller said.
Air Traffic Controller Robert Morgan explains how he brought a passenger on the plane with no experience in flight during an emergency landing
(WPBF)
It is not yet clear why the original Cessna driver was incapacitated. The Federal Aviation Administration said the person had suffered a “possible medical problem”. The agency is investigating the incident.
In a blog post, the FAA gave a detailed account of the dramatic events, describing how a team of air traffic controllers – including Christopher Flores, Justin Boyle and Joshua Somers – got involved to help the passenger before Mr Morgan took office.
Mr Morgan says he is happy to have been part of the effort, but is not considered a hero.
“At the end of the day, I feel like I was just doing my job,” Morgan told the FAA, “but it was like a higher level than you thought you’d have to do.”
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