Passenger lands King Air after pilot drops dead
April 13, 2009
A passenger landed a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air in Florida after the pilot died in flight with a total of six people on board. Federal Aviation Administration officials say the pilot died after takeoff from an airport in Naples on Sunday. It was on autopilot and climbing toward 10,000 feet when the pilot died. An air traffic controller helped the passenger, who turned out to be a private pilot licence holder, by calling a friend in Connecticut who knows the King Air plane and relaying instructions. The plane landed safely at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
