Passenger With 'No Idea' How To Fly Lands Plane After Pilot’s Medical Emergency

WEST PALM BEACH, FL — An air traffic controller guided a passenger with “no idea” how to fly a plane to land a single-engine Cessna 208 safely at Palm Beach International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

The passenger, who had no flying experience, was forced to take over after the pilot suffered a medical emergency.

“I’ve got a serious situation here,” the passenger can be heard telling Air Traffic Control in Fort Pierce, WPBF reported. “My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”

The dispatcher, Robert Morgan, talked the passenger through the ordeal, guiding him as he landed the plane at the airport, telling him to “maintain wings level” and to “just try to follow the coast, either north or southbound,” according to NBC News.

Morgan, who is also a flight instructor, was taking a break when he received the call about the passenger flying the plane, CBS Miami reported.

“I knew the plane was flying like any other plane, I just knew I had to keep him calm, point him to the runway, and tell him how to reduce the power so he could descend to land,” he said.

After the plane landed safely in Palm Beach, according to WPTV, dispatchers congratulated the passenger, one saying, “Kudos to the new pilot.”

In audio captured by LiveATC.net, another air traffic controller can be heard telling other planes what happened.

"You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane," the tower operator told an American Airlines pilot waiting to take off.

"Did you say the passengers landed the airplane?" the American Airlines pilot asked. "Oh, my God. Great job," he said, according to a CNN report.

One patient was brought to a local hospital once the plane was on the ground, the Miami Herald said. His condition was unknown.