Blind Pilot guided to land by RAF

Fratton Fred

Crikey, this must be somewhat scary

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7715345.stm

A pilot who suddenly went blind while flying his plane at 15,000ft was guided in to land by an RAF plane.

A team was scrambled from the RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire to help stricken pilot Jim O'Neill, 65.

He was flying a two-seater Cessna plane from Prestwick airport in Scotland to Colchester, Essex, when a medical condition caused him to go blind.

The RAF plane flew alongside Mr O'Neill and the crew shepherded him to their base with instructions over the radio.

Mr O'Neill, who has 18 years' flying experience, sent a mayday alert and attempted to land his plane near Full Sutton Airfield near York when disaster struck on Friday.

vulcan57

Christ! How scary must that have been for the poor fella. Well done to the RAF Tucano pilot for seeing him down.

robinph

Just saw that one on the Beeb, I suspect he needed a new pair of trousers on landing.

conceited

Amazing.
He is seriously ill now in hospital.
Wonder what happened to him?

donvito99

That is possibly the worst thing that could happen to a pilot,except for randomly dying or something.

tracker-man

Sorry for being sceptical but, did this really happen??

The service ceiling of a 2 seater cessna (assuming the 152) is 14700ft, under what circumstances would you need to be at anywhere near 14000 ft in your cessna?

Is it possible to "suddenly" go blind? and surely between the time of him going blind and the time the RAF were scrambled he would have lost control of the aircraft? I mean with no instruments or view of the ground, even if he was qualified for IFR, he had NO instruments!?

ch252

Well I don't think BBC news are joking...:P

Foggy43

Isn't the figure 5,500ft and not 15,000ft. Looks like the Beeb edited the story after the OP started the thread.

rugbyman

Similiar story over ten years ago.. A pilot of a light aircraft died or passed out in the air , some where near Bristol or South Wales. The passsenger radio ed for help and the RAF sent up a guy who talked him down. no reference but remember reading about it at the time.

Shmuck

I was amazed by this story until I got to this line in the article:

"At very short range he still couldn't see the runway and it was only at the last minute that he could."

Not quite blind then was he.

tracker-man

darragh-k wrote: »

Well I don't think BBC news are joking...:P

This will be news to you so...

vulcan57

tracker-man wrote: »

Sorry for being sceptical but, did this really happen??

The service ceiling of a 2 seater cessna (assuming the 152) is 14700ft, under what circumstances would you need to be at anywhere near 14000 ft in your cessna?

Is it possible to "suddenly" go blind? and surely between the time of him going blind and the time the RAF were scrambled he would have lost control of the aircraft? I mean with no instruments or view of the ground, even if he was qualified for IFR, he had NO instruments!?

The poor man apparently had a stroke which affected his vision. Before the RAF were scrambled the ATC radar noticed that he was loosing hieght, so I presume they helped him maintain his hieght untill the RAF were on scene

ch252

Ah, I watched the report. It was at 1500ft and he got a stroke but they guided him to the runway, he became visual of the runway and landed.

ch252

tracker-man wrote: »

This will be news to you so...

The title of that website says it all...

tracker-man

darragh-k wrote: »

The title of that website says it all...

I was simply pointing out that, on occasion, the BBC has joked. My original post was just making discussion

Lately you've been obnoxiously acting like you know more than anyone else on the subject of Aviation, or so it seems to me. Theres no need for it. Just a reminder to bring you down to earth! Not an insult, nobody likes a know-it-all!

vulcan57

tracker-man wrote: »

I was simply pointing out that, on occasion, the BBC has joked. My original post was just making discussion

And I think that Darragh was just pointing out that in this case the BBC news didn't look as though they were joking, or that's how I read it any way.

tracker-man wrote: »

Lately you've been obnoxiously acting like you know more than anyone else on the subject of Aviation, or so it seems to me. Theres no need for it. Just a reminder to bring you down to earth! Not an insult, nobody likes a know-it-all!

Sorry, lad, but is there really any need for that?

pclancy

Im sure nobody meant any offence...

That story scared the crap out of me until I realised he wasnt totally blind. Its one of my alltime fears..loosing eyesight whilst alone at the controls. I know its a freak random thing to happen but it obviosly can happen!

ch252

vulcan57 wrote: »

And I think that Darragh was just pointing out that in this case the BBC news didn't look as though they were joking, or that's how I read it any way.

Yes vulcan, I meant that they wouldn't joke about something like that. The jokes quoted in that link were all light hearted, ones that nobody would really take offence to, not something like this that could have proved fatal. If I offended anybody, I do apologise.