Mexico-bound jet diverted as pilot dies

Ap via yahoooooooo ^ | 1/20/07 | Staff

[txroadkill]

The pilot of a Continental Airlines flight became ill after takeoff and was later pronounced dead after the plane made an emergency landing Saturday, a company spokeswoman said.

The 210 passengers on the flight, which departed from Houston, were never in danger and the co-pilot landed the plane safely, Continental spokeswoman Macky Osorio said.

The airline said only that the pilot suffered a "serious medical problem." Continental believes the pilot died of natural causes, Osorio said. The pilot's name was not released.

[RunningWolf]

I went on a maint test flight of a 747-SP way back when.

You know empty, light load of fuel. A virtual fighter it was!

[Central Scrutiniser]

I was impressed by its climb, lots of fun.

I'll never fly a SP again, or a 727, or a L1011, or a DC10, or a 747-100/200/300.

May still catch a A300 in Asia.

I almost flew a YS-11 2 years ago, but I knew that the airline was dodgy.

I flew a DC3 once, got to go into the cockpit mid flight, way cool.

[Paleo Conservative]

That's not an up to date picture. The P-8 will have raked wingtips not winglets. Here are some pictures from Boeing's website.

[RunningWolf]

I did not fly the SP, I was up on the deck for the test flight.

The thing almost jumped off the ground as light as we were.

[Paleo Conservative]

I'll never fly a SP again, or a 727, or a L1011, or a DC10, or a 747-100/200/300.

Here's one 727 I'd love to fly on.

[RunningWolf]

That makes more sense.

I wonder if winglets really get as much bang for the buck that the computer models suggest anyway?

[Central Scrutiniser]

Amerijet cargo plane, I got to go on one that was on static at PHX.

I only flew the 27 a few times TWA and Mexicana.

I did get on the TU134 and TU154 and IL62M though, that was a coup.

[Paleo Conservative]

I got to fly on a red "Flying Colors" Braniff 727 from LGA to IAH on July 4, 1976. I got to see the parade of ships in New York harbor for the US Bicentennial from the air from that plane.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I loved Braniff. I have an Orange SP on my desk at work.

As a kid I would see all the DC8's and 27's coming into PHX with all the bright colors. And of course, Hughes Airwest with the banana planes and PSA with the smile planes.

[devane617]

G-d rest his soul, and comfort his family.

[bannie]

Thank you for your concern.

[Non-Sequitur]

Maybe he ate the food.

Haven't flown Continental lately, have you? What food.

[Hot Tabasco]

I could take off using the Microsoft simulator, but I crashed every landing but one,

The best kept secret in the airlines industry is there are no pilots who can actually take off and land those things, thats why there are always two in the cockpit. One guys only knows how to take off and the other guy only knows how to land.

Hopefully you'll never have to fly on the one where they goofed in the pilot scheduling and scheduled only two takeoffers or two landers.......

[Dog Gone]

Well, to be honest, the last time I played the simulator was in the late 1980s. The game didn't have jets and it didn't have autopilot landing capability.

Mostly what I did was take off from Midway airport in Chicago in my Cessna, or whatever, and tried to crash into the Sears Tower. I got pretty good at that...

[Yo-Yo]

Yeah, that P-8 looks pretty, but how well will it hold up when swapping paint mid-air with a ChiCom fighter?

[Paleo Conservative]

Yeah, that P-8 looks pretty, but how well will it hold up when swapping paint mid-air with a ChiCom fighter?

Probably about as well as the Brazilian 737 that had a mid air collision with an Embraer executive jet did last fall.

[JRios1968]

Well, another thread hijacked by idiots. It seems to be the norm these days.

May I suggest you not hijack any more threads? ;)

[TightyRighty]

My husband works for Skywest. Their policy is: if the pilots don't eat it - have at it. So one day he brought me home a container - it was by far the nastiest stuff I've ever tasted.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Wasn't there a plane crash that happened back in either the 1980s or 70s were the pilot had some kind of medical condition or the pilot went crazy and , and the co- pilot and the pilot got in a argument, and the pilot died and the plane crashed ?
It sounds like this pilot either had a heart attack or stroke.
I did ask someone one time, what happens in the event a pilot gets diarrhea on take off and climb out ? does the co pilot take over some the pilot can go to the bathroom ? or ... well,, you know.
I know this might be a stupid question, but, are both the pilot and co pilot trained to fly the plane alone in case of something like this happens ?

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I had a heart doctor tell me, that some people don't even have symptoms or evidence of a heart attack is coming in the near future even if they had checkups, and have their heart checked over.
He said that sometimes this can happen and there is nothing you can do about it.