Passenger lands plane in Florida after pilot incapacitated

A passenger with no flying experience landed a small plane at a Florida airport after the pilot became “incoherent” due to a medical emergency, according to US media on Wednesday.

According to NBC, the unwitting pilot, the only passenger on the single-engine Cessna 208, relied on air traffic control to guide his landing at Palm Beach International Airport, about 68 miles (110 kilometers) north of Miami.

Officials at Fort Pierce, north of Palm Beach, received an emergency call around noon on Tuesday from the passenger, saying, “I’ve got a serious situation here,” NBC reported.

“My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”

Asked for his position he said, “I have no idea” but that he could see the Florida coastline.

“Maintain wings level and just try to follow the coast, either north or southbound,” the air traffic official told him. “We’re trying to locate you.”

Air traffic controller Robert Morgan said his experience as a flight instructor helped him guide the passenger, whose name has not been released, as he landed the plane.

“He was very calm, he just said, ‘hey, I just don’t know how to fly, you know, I don’t know how to stop this thing if I do get it on the runway,” Morgan told CNN.

“I felt like I was gonna cry because I had so much adrenaline built up” after the incident, Morgan added, saying the passenger gave him a hug and thanked him for helping him get safely back to his pregnant wife.

The pilot’s condition or the nature of the medical emergency were not immediately disclosed, but Palm Beach Fire Rescue reported that a patient was transported to a hospital after the plane touched down.