Plane Diverted To Valley After Pilot Has Heart Attack

KGBT4 (CBS affiliate for the Texas Rio Grande Valley) ^ | Jan 20, 2007 11:16 PM | Staff

[Paleo Conservative]

Steve Sweeney, his wife and a group of friends left Philadelphia early Saturday morning.

They flew to Houston and then boarded their connecting flight en route to Puerto Vallarta.

But while in the air, heading into Mexico, Sweeney said the passengers were issued an alert.

"The co-pilot came over on the loud speaker saying if there was a doctor on board and after about 10-15 minutes they asked if there was a pilot on board," Sweeney said.

Immediately, he knew something was wrong.

"It was scary, my wife got nervous, she was thinking that my daughters wedding is in June and she was like, we're not gonna make it, we're not gonna make the wedding," he recalled.

Dave Davenport from South Carolina added: "It was the first time something like this has ever happened on a flight with (me and my wife)"

Action 4 News contacted Continential Airlines' headquarters.

In a verbal statement they told us a pilot of Flight 1838, "experienced a serious medical problem which required the aircraft to land immediately."

The airplane was diverted to the McAllen-Miller International Airport.

An ambulance arrived and transported the pilot to the McAllen Medical Center but according to Continental officials, the captain died.

The airline assures a Continental co-pilot landed the plane around 1:30 p.m.

But Sweeney has another story.

"They asked for a pilot out of the passengers and one guy who flies small planes went out and helped them," he remembered.

In the end, the plane landed safely and all 210 passengers waited approximately four hours for another crew to arrive and finally fly them to Puerto Vallarta.

The wait, however, wasn't so bad according to some passengers. Continental fed them pizza and soft drinks while they waited.

Davenport says the crew did a great job keeping everyone calm.

"They kept their cool, they knew exactly what they were doing so it kinda settled everyone down after a while."

[airplaneguy]

No I'm not saying it would be impossible for another pilot to fly an aircraft he wasn't checked out on but it would be difficult. Some of the systems operate differently and things like pressurization and pneumatic controls are in different spots. I think the software is Linex actually. Last night we had a software issue before we took off that caused a delay for about an hour. After a while you start to recognize airplane specific issues that might happen and how to deal with them.

Kinda like you have an old car the runs a certain way and the owner knows what certain noises are or how to get it to start in the cold. same thing with planes. For me personally it takes about 100 hours to get comfortable in each new type. about 5 weeks of flying or so.

[airplaneguy]

"Assuming the deaths or incapacitation of both pilots, is it possible for anyone to even enter the flight deck if the door is locked?"

I doubt it. I wouldn't try it anyway.