'Hero passenger' helps land plane!

looksee

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/hero-passenger-helped-land-plane-at-dublin-airport-574862.html

It has emerged that a passenger helped to land a plane at Dublin Airport early yesterday morning.

The Lufthansa Boeing 747 was en route from New York to Frankfurt with 264 passengers on board when the first officer became "incapacitated" while it was flying over the Atlantic.

Once the crew announced that the plane was being diverted, the passenger asked why, and offered his assistance.

The German national, thought to be a qualified pilot, then helped bring the plane down safely in an emergency landing at Dublin Airport shortly before 6am yesterday morning.

Right, so all that security, then you just say 'I'm a pilot' and you can get into the cockpit and drive the plane!

MagicMarker

Did the plane not have a blow up co-pilot for emergencies such as these?

Sky King

What was wrong with the Captain?

keith16

If word of this gets out, crazy clown airlines will become a laughing stock.

novarock

The co-pilot was incapacitated - A pilot from another airline helped the lufthansa captain land. The herald are making it sound like airplane. Looks like they picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines..

MarkR

Hero for doing his job? Surely the other pilot could have landed it safely by themselves?

novarock

MarkR wrote: »

Hero for doing his job? Surely the other pilot could have landed it safely by themselves?

Probably, but there is stuff on landing that one person and an autpilot would struggle with. Slowing down being one of them. Not enough hands type situation. It was no harm having a second pair of hands, the press are just being overdramatic.

Immaculate Pasta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlDXQdgx_QU&t=5m32s

I thought of this scene straightaway

Overflow

looksee wrote: »

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/hero-passenger-helped-land-plane-at-dublin-airport-574862.html



Right, so all that security, then you just say 'I'm a pilot' and you can get into the cockpit and drive the plane!

Slow down there now before you hurt your brain !

Your making a lot of assumptions based on a very short article, do you believe you know all the facts from reading this article ? Firstly FAA/JAA pilots would usually carry around their pilot license with them, just like you would your driving license, that and i don't think terrorists are in the business of getting on as many flights as possible in the hope that the first officer falls ill, just doesn't seem like a good strategy !

the groutch

must have been Dave Grohl

seamus

Overflow wrote: »

Slow down there now before you hurt your brain !

Your making a lot of assumptions based on a very short article, do you believe you know all the facts from reading this article ? Firstly FAA/JAA pilots would usually carry around their pilot license with them, just like you would your driving license, that and i don't think terrorists are in the business of getting on as many flights as possible in the hope that the first officer falls ill, just doesn't seem like a good strategy !

It's also not like the radio was broken. It would be fairly straightforward for the captain to verify the guy's licence and get details of his qualifications.

If the captain had been at all skeptical that this guy wasn't up to the task (e.g. he had no 747 flight experience), he would have landed the plane on his own.

not yet

looksee wrote: »

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/hero-passenger-helped-land-plane-at-dublin-airport-574862.html



Right, so all that security, then you just say 'I'm a pilot' and you can get into the cockpit and drive the plane!

Drive the plane....!!! do you think it's one of those fairground planes that kids sit in.

jonnyfingers

I don't understand, the first officer was incapacitated so they were diverting the plane instead of landing it? Does that mean the pilot can only fly the plane but needs a first officer to land it?

Skid

I think landing a Plane is much easier than the Airlines want you to believe.

Anytime I have seen passengers attempt to land Planes in a movie, they always get it down easily enough

seamus

jonnyfingers wrote: »

I don't understand, the first officer was incapacitated so they were diverting the plane instead of landing it? Does that mean the pilot can only fly the plane but needs a first officer to land it?

http://www.emory.edu/BUSINESS/et/552fall2004/glasscockpits/glass2_files/image003.jpg
Planes have lots of buttons and things, 747s even more so. So it's really useful to have 4 hands to operate all that stuff.

Besides, "Divert" basically means, "Land at the nearest suitable airport". While the captain can no doubt land the aircraft on his own, SOP is probably to land the plane immediately if either pilot becomes incapacitated. The other pilot can't just continue onto the destination on his own.

jonnyfingers

seamus wrote: »

http://www.emory.edu/BUSINESS/et/552fall2004/glasscockpits/glass2_files/image003.jpg
Planes have lots of buttons and things, 747s even more so. So it's really useful to have 4 hands to operate all that stuff.

Besides, "Divert" basically means, "Land at the nearest suitable airport". While the captain can no doubt land the aircraft on his own, SOP is probably to land the plane immediately if either pilot becomes incapacitated. The other pilot can't just continue onto the destination on his own.

Ok I just realised I was assuming they were circling over Dublin but couldn't land, rather than they were en-route and were looking to land at the nearest airport.

Mint Sauce

Sky King wrote: »

What was wrong with the Captain?

He had the fish.

AeoNGriM

looksee wrote: »

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/hero-passenger-helped-land-plane-at-dublin-airport-574862.html



Right, so all that security, then you just say 'I'm a pilot' and you can get into the cockpit and drive the plane!

Perhaps he produced some ID?

pickarooney

What do they mean "thought to be a qualified pilot"?
How can they not have the basic facts?

looksee

Overflow wrote: »

Slow down there now before you hurt your brain !

Your making a lot of assumptions based on a very short article, do you believe you know all the facts from reading this article ? Firstly FAA/JAA pilots would usually carry around their pilot license with them, just like you would your driving license, that and i don't think terrorists are in the business of getting on as many flights as possible in the hope that the first officer falls ill, just doesn't seem like a good strategy !

Dear lord some of ye are hard work!

Passenger

But I've never even been to NY or Frankfurt!!


:eek:

Flying Abruptly

From article on journal.ie it seems like he had little input into actually landing the plane.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa said that the person was a fully-licensed pilot but said that even in their absence the captain would have maintained full control of the flight.
The spokesperson said that this was the case in this instance and the captain landed the plane with the passenger providing “extra back-up” according to the German airline’s spokesperson.

seamus

Flying Abruptly wrote: »

From article on journal.ie it seems like he had little input into actually landing the plane.

"Sit there and tell me what those two dials are saying", probably.

harney

I wonder if Ryanair could swing this to their advantage, extended priority boarding if you'll land the plane? Then change it around in a few years and charge you if you can't land it?

Green Diesel

looksee wrote: »

Right, so all that security, then you just say 'I'm a pilot' and you can get into the cockpit and drive the plane!

http://img2.joyreactor.com/pics/post/full/funny-pictures-inbetweeners-auto-tv-shows-pilot-385502.jpeg

aidan24326

jonnyfingers wrote: »

I don't understand, the first officer was incapacitated so they were diverting the plane instead of landing it? Does that mean the pilot can only fly the plane but needs a first officer to land it?

It's not that he absolutely needs a first officer but it would certainly help with the increased workload on landing approach. The press are basically just building up what is effectively a non-story. There was nothing heroic about it.

Larbre34

The way I heard it, John Travolta offered to take over for the ill co-pilot (he had the sh*ts), but when Travolta began to ask the pilot if he had ever considered dianetics, he got punched out by the chief steward and Bruce Dickinson was asked to take over the right-hand chair.

In fairness, its the prudent thing to do, theres a lot of crap to keep an eye on in a 747 cockpit, especially since they phased out the flight engineer.

Lufthansa, Wilkommen in Dublin, wir leben Autos.

fishy fishy

novarock wrote: »

Probably, but there is stuff on landing that one person and an autpilot would struggle with. Slowing down being one of them. Not enough hands type situation. It was no harm having a second pair of hands, the press are just being overdramatic.

he could have used his flipping' knees.

I don't see any hero in this story. A pilot lands a plane - big deal
the things that pass for news these days. Still it helps "fill a paper" while the REAL news goes unpublished.

Is Rowan Atkinson up to his old tricks again?

novarock

fishy fishy wrote: »

he could have used his flipping' knees.

I don't see any hero in this story. A pilot lands a plane - big deal
the things that pass for news these days. Still it helps "fill a paper" while the REAL news goes unpublished.

What we are also forgetting is that they did an emergency landing over a headache. That part I find hilarious.

robinph

seamus wrote: »

Besides, "Divert" basically means, "Land at the nearest suitable airport". While the captain can no doubt land the aircraft on his own, SOP is probably to land the plane immediately if either pilot becomes incapacitated. The other pilot can't just continue onto the destination on his own.

Wouldn't surprise me if "divert" also means, "No you cannot land at <busy airport> where we only have 40 seconds between each plane landing to clear the runway of your debris before the next plane will be due in, bugger off to a quieter airport for your emergency landing please and don't disrupt our tight timing of landing slots". Not quite that manic with the timing in Dublin, but you'd still not want to have it out of action when there are less busy runways available to land on.

Having the spare pair of eyes in the cockpit would have been handy, and that is probably all the 2nd person is ever doing during every other landing.