Air traffic controllers instructed 39-year-old Darren Harrison on how to fly and land the Cessna 208 plane at Palm Beach International Airport.
Robert Morgan / Federal Aviation AdministrationRobert Morgan , leave , and Darren Harrison , powerful , after Morgan aid Harrison land the sheet .
When the pilot light of his plane suddenly sink fore , Darren Harrison leaped into action . Reaching out to beam traffic ascendency , he explained that he had no estimation how to vanish or land the plane — and controllers on the ground were able-bodied to mouth him through it safely .
“ I ’ve father a serious situation here , ” Harrison radioed to tune dealings controllers in Fort Pierce , Florida , at around noontide on May 10 . “ My pilot has gone incoherent . I have no thought how to fly the aeroplane . ”
Robert Morgan/Federal Aviation AdministrationRobert Morgan, left, and Darren Harrison, right, after Morgan helped Harrison land the plane.
The pilot , whose name has not been revealed , became suddenly ill about an hour after direct off with Harrison and one other rider in a Cessna 208 plane from Leonard Thompson Airport in the Bahamas . According to anFederal Aviation Administration web log post , the pilot then slumped against the control , institutionalize the plane into a nosedive .
That ’s when Harrison took control and reached out for help . According toThe New York Times , he spoke first with atmosphere traffic restrainer Christopher Flores at Fort Pierce , who attempt to reckon out where the plane was . Harrison did n’t know how to use the piloting tools — but he could see the Florida coast .
“ Maintain backstage grade and just endeavor to follow the coast either northbound or southbound , ” Flores separate him . “ We ’re trying to site you . ”
Federal Aviation AdministrationMorgan and a colleague show Harrison the images of the Cessna 208 cockpit they printed out to help him land.
After about 10 minutes , air traffic restrainer at Palm Beach International Airport took over . Air dealings comptroller Robert Morgan toldWPBFthat he was on a break when one of his colleagues tell him , “ There ’s a rider flying a plane that ’s not a fender and the pilot is incapacitated so they said you necessitate to help them try out and land the sheet . ”
Morgan , an experienced flight instructor , rush to help oneself . But since Morgan was unfamiliar with Cessna 208 planes , one of his fellow printed out photos of the sheet ’s cockpit — and Morgan instruct Harrison on how to set ashore the aircraft .
Federal Aviation AdministrationMorgan and a colleague show Harrison the images of the Cessna 208 cockpit they publish out to help him Din Land .
WPTVThe Cessna 208 on the ground at Palm Beach International Airport shortly after landing.
“ He was really unagitated , ” Morgan toldCNN . “ He said , ‘ I do n’t hump how to fly . I do n’t know how to stop this matter if I do get on the rail . ' ”
To WPBF , Morgan added , “ I knew the plane was fly like any other aeroplane , I just knew I had to keep him serene , point him to the runway and tell him how to reduce the power so he could descend to demesne . ”
As other air dealings controllers launch into action to turn back departures and put other airplane into holding pattern , Morgan talk Harrison through landing his Cessna 208 .
“ seek to hold the wing level and see if you could go descending for me , ” Morgan tell him . “ tug forward on the mastery and settle at a very slow charge per unit . ”
Before he knew it , Morgan told WPBF , Harrison had successfully landed the airplane on the tarmac . Morgan run down to meet him and give him a bragging squeeze .
“ I feel like I was snuff it to cry then , because I had so much Adrenalin build up up , ” Morgan told CNN . “ I was really happy that it worked out and that nobody got hurt . ”
He sum up , “ It was an emotional consequence . [ Harrison ] said that he just wanted to get home to his pregnant married woman . And that feel even better . ”
WPTVThe Cessna 208 on the ground at Palm Beach International Airport shortly after landing .
Harrison , a 39 - year - old upcountry designer from Lakeland , Florida , decline to speak with the pressing after the landing . According toThe New York Post , he was fall from a fishing tripper to the Bahamas when he avert disaster . And his uncle , Glenn Harrison , said he was n’t surprised by his nephew ’s valiance and composure .
“ I know he was probably scared to death but it does n’t surprise me him doing what he did , ” said . “ He ’s pretty right about proceed his cool , it does n’t surprise me he keep his composure , followed management and everything turned out big . ”
Meanwhile , others at Palm Beach International Airport oppose with awe . “ You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane , ” an air dealings comptroller told an American Airlines pilot who witness the landing place .
“ Did you say the rider landed the aeroplane ? ” the pilot reply . “ Oh , my God . large job . ”
But though Morgan ’s steady hand in the crisis help avert a tragedy , the air dealings control insists that he was just doing what was expected of him .
credit his colleagues and Harrison , who he called a submarine , Morgan said,“At the end of the day , I find like I was just doing my job . But it was like on a higher level than you think you ’d have to do it . ”
After reading about the man who managed to shore a plane despite not know how to fly , see the story ofThomas Fitzpatrick , the amateur pilot who managed to land a aeroplane on the streets of NYC — doubly . Then , discover the story of Charles Lindbergh ’s famed plane theSpirit of St. Louis .
