US Jets currently following Unresponsive Pilot

wretcheddomain

Just saw this on Flight Radar, a plane that was supposed to land in Florida has continued south, and the pilot appears to be unresponsive:

U.S. jets are following a TBM700 (N900KN) past Florida. Pilot unresponsive, was supposed to land in Florida

Here's the path of the plane at the moment:

http://www.flightradar24.com/N900KN/440c4fb

Doesn't look like this is going to end well.

Pudsy33

Its a small plane I think, thankfully not an airline. Still there was warnings about something imminent, hopefully it's a false alarm.

donvito99

It's a tiny single engined light aircraft. Hardly worthy of that thread title or for that matter the bastion of important, earth shattering topics that is AH.

wretcheddomain

donvito99 wrote: »

It's a tiny single engined light aircraft. Hardly worthy of that thread title or for that matter the bastion of important, earth shattering topics that is AH.

And discussing Jedward is more important?

Buona Fortuna

Hopefully a false alarm.

Wibbs

Poor devil may have had her on autopilot and suffered a heart attack or similar. Maybe the aircraft depressurised, at 25,000 feet you're gonna lose consciousness pretty quickly. Jesus. It's well creepy watching it in real time on that flightradar thingy.

YFlyer

That site showed alot of near misses :eek:

wretcheddomain

YFlyer wrote: »

That site showed alot of near misses :eek:

If the world were that small, you might have had a point.

kneemos

Too slow for jets to follow surely.Is it in fact Sideshow Bob?

Its Only Ray Parlour

It seemed to have turned over southern Jamaica then continued to on its path to South America.

YFlyer

Looks like its about the pass over Cuba. Will it have enough fuel to get to Jamaica?

Killer Wench

Hypoxia related. At first, I thought this was a non-story but I'm beginning to wonder if there was a celebrity on board but they aren't going to give specifics until the plane goes down.

tayto lover

Is this similar to what happened the golfer Payne Steward?

http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/abclearjet.htm

YFlyer

Its Only Ray Parlour wrote: »

It seemed to have turned over southern Jamaica then continued to on its path to South America.

It hasn't.

wretcheddomain

According to CNN report, F15 fighters were scrambled but couldn't actually see into the cockpit as the windows were frosted over!

There appear to be two pilots aboard the unresponsive plane now flying over Cuba, a federal aviation source tells CNN's Deborah Feyerick. The source described the pilots as unconscious. Based on calculations of fuel known to be aboard the aircraft, the source said the plane probably ran out of fuel about 2 p.m. ET.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/05/us/norad-air-threat/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Will they eventually shoot it down, or just let it crash?

P_1

tayto lover wrote: »

Is this similar to what happened the golfer Payne Steward?

http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/abclearjet.htm

Sadly I think so. The plane will keep flying until it runs out of fuel.

BigCon

Plane is registered to Larry Glazer, brother of Malcolm, owner of Man Utd (as quoted by Fox news).

kneemos

wretcheddomain wrote: »

According to CNN report, F15 fighters were scrambled but couldn't actually see into the cockpit as the windows were frosted over!

Will they eventually shoot it down, or just let it crash?

If it's likely to crash in a populated area,shoot it down I'd imagine.Looks as if they're dead
either way.

Lucas Castroman

wretcheddomain wrote: »

According to CNN report, F15 fighters were scrambled but couldn't actually see into the cockpit as the windows were frosted over!

Will they eventually shoot it down, or just let it crash?

Why don't they do a 4g inverted dive with said plane?

wazky

Lucas Castroman wrote: »

Why don't they do a 4g inverted dive with said plane?

Because Steven Seagal isn't flying the jet..

FloatingVoter

wazky wrote: »

Because Steven Seagal isn't flying the jet..

I'm off to Twitter to start the "Steven Seagal RIP" rumour.

spurious

Looks like he's in the sea. Gone off Flight Radar.

ceadaoin.

Jamaican officials have said that it has crashed there and 3 people were on board.

Pudsy33

Sad people have died, but a relief it wasn't aimed at anything.

The Purveyor of Truth

FloatingVoter wrote: »

I'm off to Twitter to start the "Steven Seagal RIP" rumour.

What if the 14 people that follow you are gone out for the night.

kowloon

Wibbs wrote: »

Poor devil may have had her on autopilot and suffered a heart attack or similar. Maybe the aircraft depressurised, at 25,000 feet you're gonna lose consciousness pretty quickly. Jesus. It's well creepy watching it in real time on that flightradar thingy.

Flight instructor told me that a guy going solo in the UK in a light aircraft lost conciousness (can't remember if it was hypoxia, an exhaust leak or whatever) but the plane was levelled out. It managed to glide down and land gently in a field by itself. Any further and it might have gone down in the channel.

JJayoo

kowloon wrote: »

Flight instructor told me that a guy going solo in the UK in a light aircraft lost conciousness (can't remember if it was hypoxia, an exhaust leak or whatever) but the plane was levelled out. It managed to glide down and land gently in a field by itself. Any further and it might have gone down in the channel.

I think the flight instructor may have been talking sh1te.

kowloon

JJayoo wrote: »

I think the flight instructor may have been talking sh1te.

I think it's quite possible he was, the nearest I can remember is the plane that was landed by a passenger when the pilot had a heart attack. But I was told the story all the same. Has to be more than a decade ago now.

Wibbs

I'd say it's technically possible if a plane had a sophisticated autopilot that kept the wings level* and it happened to come in slowly enough, but didn't stall out and ground effect cushioned it at the last moments, but I really really doubt it. It would be one helluva fluke if it did happen.

If the chase planes observed the frosted up windows that screams a depressurised cabin. Very sad, though hopefully they either died from lack of oxygen, or never came too as they descended/fell from the sky. That way they would have just gone to "sleep" and wouldn't have known what hit them.





*That incredible landing in the Hudson after the engines flamed out was down to superlative flying and quick thinking on the behalf of one helluva pilot, but the plane's systems kept the wings level too. The Air France Airbus that crashed on the flight from Brazil basically stalled and fell outa the sky yet the autopilot kept its wings level all the way down from 30 odd thousand, which was some feat. Though to this day I'll never understand how the pilots didn't cop the hell onto what was happening. Even with the conflicting instrument readings. Too busy flying the procedures and not flying the bloody plane. They put French airforce pilots in a sim and repeated the scenario and they all recovered the aircraft, because they fly the plane first and foremost.

kneemos

Wibbs wrote: »

I'd say it's technically possible if a plane had a sophisticated autopilot that kept the wings level* and it happened to come in slowly enough, but didn't stall out and ground effect cushioned it at the last moments, but I really really doubt it. It would be one helluva fluke if it did happen.

If the chase planes observed the frosted up windows that screams a depressurised cabin. Very sad, though hopefully they either died from lack of oxygen, or never came too as they descended/fell from the sky. That way they would have just gone to "sleep" and wouldn't have known what hit them.





*That incredible landing in the Hudson after the engines flamed out was down to superlative flying and quick thinking on the behalf of one helluva pilot, but the plane's systems kept the wings level too. The Air France Airbus that crashed on the flight from Brazil basically stalled and fell outa the sky yet the autopilot kept its wings level all the way down from 30 odd thousand, which was some feat. Though to this day I'll never understand how the pilots didn't cop the hell onto what was happening. Even with the conflicting instrument readings. Too busy flying the procedures and not flying the bloody plane. They put French airforce pilots in a sim and repeated the scenario and they all recovered the aircraft, because they fly the plane first and foremost.

Chesley Sullenberger wad the Hudson pilot,also a keen glider pilot in his spare time which I always suspected played a big part in everybody walking away.

kowloon

A single axis autopilot will keep the wings level, but won't have pitch control so I expect it would be at the mercy of the trim.

Hypoxia isn't supposed to be the worst way to go.