Passenger pulls off miraculous feat, being
talked into landing private plane after
pilot passes out

Great job! He might not have made it without his cell phone

Wonderful. Congratulations to all. Well done.

Reading this account brings tears to my eyes over the grace of God. Thank you for posting this.

Admittedly a picky point, but after reading "ivent" I wonder about how accurate that transcript is. The passenger found the transponder very quickly and was able to enter 7700 which means "emergency:" ATC would have told him to press "IDENT", which causes the radar screen's return of the aircraft to "bloom" which identifies the aircraft to ATC. Pretty remarkable job by that guy.

I'm sure he doesn't want to do this ever again.

Not a miracle, but a smart guy, who listened closely and didn't panic. Excellent coaching from the controller. Frankly, these aircraft are relatively easy to keep flying. The whole trick to a landing is to slow down and descend under control, which takes someone to explain how to make that happen. Then you must make that descent path coincide with the first third of a runway. This is certainly not trivial by any means, but when carefully coached, and using mostly TRIM (hands off the controls, mostly) rather than moving the wheel around, risking overcontrolling, and a very long and very wide runway, means that your chances are pretty good of making at least a "good" landing. You can miss the right-left center a bit, and be a good bit "long" on your touchdown, and a wide, long runway makes that OK. One thing that may have helped is that the aircraft may have been on autopilot. If you can use the heading knob to tell the autopilot to fly a particular course, that helps a lot, it will keep the wings level If not on autopilot, the pitch trim wheel (or button) will make the aircraft hold a particular speed. Reduce power, and it will still hold that same speed....and descend. Keeping the speed trimmed to a safe, yet slow, speed is a critical issue, adjust throttle to stay level or descend. These aircraft have a LOT of natural stability, so hands off, adjusting trim works well to get slow changes, nothing radical. Definition of a good landing: One where you walk away. A GREAT landing is where you can use the airplane over again. So, sounds like a great landing. Level headed, sensible person. Not panicking is a huge part of the success. And a great controller who must be a pilot, not all are. Big well done to all.

That was a darned fine landing for a commercial pilot and unbelievably good for someone with no seat time at all. Bravo, bravo, sir, great job!

#50 The controller wasn't just a pilot, but also a Certified Flight Instructor with 20 years of experience. It was a great landing. The guy might be excited about flying after that experience. There are courses know as Pinch Hitter courses, where the instructor teaches you enough to land a plane if the pilot becomes incapacitated.

#6, I’ll bet his wife would beg to differ with you on the miracle comment! I believe in miracles!

when I was a kid, pre-teen we flew into marsh harbor a couple of times to pick up a sail charter for a week or two. Once in a sea plane, Chalk's maybe?? Mostly on Macky or Bahama air. The pilot let me sit up front and showed me how to operate things, let me fly it a bit, explained how it all worked. Later in college(SWTSU) I took aviation/groundschool as an elective. When I flew to Ft. Lauderdale to meet up with family, then on to the Bahamas, My dad told the charter captain I was taking the course and he put me in the right seat, had me go through preflight, operate flaps and trim, do the radio to tower coms, Rather than put it on auto pilot he had me hand fly it across the straights, circle the airfield, set up for final...then took over for the landing. Turned out he was a flight instructor and gave me a log book, filled it out and signed for my 1st flight time. In a Twin engine Cessna. Later back at school the 150's and 172's seemed slow motion and incredibly simple. I had a bad motorcycle wreck just before my solo's, nearly lost my left leg, needed crutches/cane for years after. and never flew again. BUT...my point is...everyone should know the basic dynamics of what allows a plane to fly, and at least take the "Free Flight" offered an nearly all small airfields, where you get to sit up front and see whats what. Maybe sign up for a few lessons even if you never plan to become a licensed pilot or get your own plane. My son had a friend in HS who's family owned a small airfeild nearby, when his buddy turned 16yo, his parents gave him a plane instead of a car...yuuuge CDI factor when the two wanted to ask girls out. Later they both enrolled in a college not far away that had a landing strip right on campus, commuted on nice days in the plane. Again...date bait., that even cheerleaders and homecoming queens couldn't resist.

"Talk-down aircraft landing" There have been over a half dozen over the years with very little aircraft damage. VASI lights, trim, flaps, bleeding off airspeed (when you don't know what any of those things are), and not panicking... It's still impressive.

Clank!

Wow. I can't even fix the clock on my Apple computer when I'm being talked through it by a technician on the phone.

The guy needs to rush out and purchase a Powerball lottery ticket before the Wednesday night drawing.

That's an impressive achievement by a cool-headed passenger. Once my father flew down to the Masters with three others in a single prop Cessna. My mother was afraid that our friend and neighbor, the pilot, a WW2 USAF veteran with one eye and a heart condition, might vapor lock at the controls. Fortunately, he didn't, and the trip went well. But what would you do if your private aircraft blew an engine and the propeller stopped dead in front of your face, and you were a mile high? You'd hope there was an airstrip close by, because you were going to come down soon, and all you had left were flaps and rudders. February 11, 2022 a pilot in Oregon experienced a catastrophic engine failure in flight, and one chance to get his aircraft, suddenly a glider, down safely. This is a hairy situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEMlny_ExuU (Cessna catastrophic engine failure, and landing)

Overall, flying is easy, except for the landing part.

I definitely remember my first solo landing...bounced that dang Cessna 150 right on it's tricycle landing gear...

Wow. This gave me goosebumps. My grandson, who is in pilot training, was super impressed with the passenger and air traffic controller.

One of my favorite movie lines, "I didn't know you knew how to fly a plane!" "Fly? Yes! Land? No!" Nice work by this substitute pilot. That would be a bit scary.

ADSB data suggests that this was a very serious situation at the point of pilot incapacitation until the passenger took control of the aircraft.