Posted on 01/21/2007 9:06:16 PM PST by 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."
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Kind of figured it was a heart attack.
Good. At first, I was afraid we had had in-flight pilot deaths on two consecutive days...
Mexico-bound jet diverted as pilot dies
Ap via yahoooooooo ^ | 1/20/07 | Staff
Posted on 01/20/2007 10:47:51 PM CST by txroadkill
Mueller Airport in McAllen is very close to hospital. If there was a chance of saving the captain after landing, his life would have been saved.
Probably needed someone to handle the radio while he flew.
That should be "Miller Airport" not "Mueller Airport".
It seems sort of universal that everyone is more comfortable once they are on the ground after an "incident" in the air. I'd think especially so when someone (not the pilot evidently) comes on the mic and asks if there is a pilot on board. If you don't have any reaction, you are probably dead already.
This passenger acted put out that an airline pilot didn't come forward. Better to have some pilot in the seat if there wasn't another airline pilot on board than no pilot at all.
Click on picture to go to the Flight Aware website.
COA1838 (web site) (all flights) (alert me)
Continental Air Lines Inc. "Continental"
Aircraft Boeing 757-300 (twin-jet) (H/B753/Q)
Origin George Bush Intctl Houston (KIAH)
Destination Mc Allen Miller Int'l (KMFE)
Other flights between these airports
Route n/a
Date Saturday, Jan 20, 2007
Duration 1 hour 31 minutes
According to the main page for the flight, it took 1:31 to fly. At 500 mph, that would be 750 miles. Of course the initial climb and descent were slower.
What you say is true. Another angle is that , as was just demonstrated, you never know when the current pilot is going to drop off.
A cessna pilot in a boeing is better than no pilot in a boeing. So keep the small plane pilot on deck.
Smart move bringing him up front.
And that's why there are two pilots on each plane.
Quick question (born of ignorance since I know nothing of pilots and flying commercial airliners, so be gentle, please).
When the co-pilot asks if there are any pilots aboard (from amongst the passengers), is this because he's not qualified to fly the plane (I would tend to doubt that), because some silly regulation requires two qualified pilots be in the cockpit (I would tend to doubt that, too) or because there's just too much going on in there for one person to adequately handle it all on his own, and he needs another set of eyes/hands?
That couldn't be possible. Planes take off all the time with just two pilots on board. If one goes to the lavoratory, that means there is just one pilot in the cockpit at the controls during that time. He probably wanted someone who could read check lists and operate the radio while he landed the plane.
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