Pilot Down, Passenger Takes Over With ‘No Idea How To Fly’

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A passenger with no flying experience radioed an urgent plea for help when the pilot of a small plane fell ill off Florida’s Atlantic coast, and was able to land safely with the help of air traffic controllers.

The man used cockpit radio to communicate after realizing the pilot was too sick to handle the controls.

He said the pilot was incoherent and he had no idea how to fly a plane.

Controllers kept the man calm.

Asked for the plane’s position, he said he didn’t know.

Eventually they spotted the Cessna 208 heading north over Boca Raton.

Controllers then guided him Tuesday to a safe landing at Palm Beach International Airport, where a controller told him “Kudos to the new pilot.”