In early May, a passenger, Darren Harrison, successfully landed a plane after the pilot became
unconscious. The pilot of the single-engine Cessna 208 plane fell unconscious and one of the
two passengers successfully landed the plane even though he had no prior aviation experience.
The plane was just southwest of where it was meant to land when the pilot went
incoherent. The plane landed at the Palm Beach International Airport.
Darren Harrison called into the Fort Pierce Tower and was recorded saying “My pilot has
gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.” The dispatcher walked him through
how to fly the plane.
During an interview Darren was asked how he knew what to do and he responded with
“Just common sense, I guess, being on airplanes, because I knew if I went up and yanked that
the airplane would stall.”
Darren was also quoted saying “At that point, I knew if I didn’t react, that we would die.”