Continental Pilot Dies Mid-Flight, Jet Still Lands Safely

"Human error" is typically a strong reason for plane crashes. "Death" doesn't necessarily qualify as "error" of course, but when an airline pilot dies mid-flight, you can reasonably expect that a non-positive fate will become those on the plane. Not so for Continental Airlines passenger Flight 61, which landed successfully even though its pilot, a 61-year-old employee with 32 years of service for the airline, died tragically mid-flight.

The 777 Boeing, which landed in Newark at approximately noon -- while carrying a very terrifying 247 passengers -- had an emergency declared onboard and received special treatment in terms of landing at the airport.

It's a tragic and awful story, of course, because someone died. Death is never, ever cool (with maybe some mild exceptions). But, in a weird way, don't you kind-of/sort-of have to think that if a pilot is going to go out, this is how they want to go?

He died of natural causes according to Continental spokeswoman Kelly Cripe, who stated that, "The flight continued safely with two pilots at the controls," after an onboard relief pilot took over his seat, and that, "No one [onboard] knew ..."

I mean that seriously, too -- he died at like 30,000 feet in the air, doing what he presumably loves, and, yet, the plane still managed to land safely. I'm not saying there's a feel-good story here, people, just that there's the posibility of a silver lining somewhere in this very grey cloud.

Passenger Lands Plane After Pilot Dies

Disaster was averted in southern Florida on Sunday, April 12th, when a passenger successfully landed a twin-engine plane after the pilot died during the flight.

The Beechcraft King Air 200, a twin-engine charter plane, was carrying a total of six people and was on its way past 10,000 feet when the pilot suffered an apparent seizure.

One of the passengers on board was licensed to fly smaller, single-engine planes, but had no experience with larger twin-engine planes.

Amazingly, one of the air traffic controller's friends had extensive experience flying Beechcraft King Air 200s. The air traffic controller relayed information from the friend in Connecticut to the passenger at the controls in order to bring the plane down safely.

The flight originated from Marco Island Executive Airport and was bound for Jackson, Mississippi. Rather than continuing to Jackson, the plane was redirected to the closest nearby airport, Southwest Florida International Airport. In accordance with FAA policy, none of the names of passengers, the controllers, or the pilot have been released at this time.

While the pilot's death is a tragedy, it is amazing that such a potentially disastrous situation was avoided.