A pilot noticed the head of his copilot had rolled back in his chair. He thought he was asleep, but discovered he was actually dead once they landed.
last June noticed the head of his copilot—a flying instructor he knew well—had rolled back in his chair. The pilot thought his friend was merely pretending to be asleep, even when the instructor slumped over onto the pilot’s shoulder.
The pilot continued the flight and landed as normal. Only when he tried to get the instructor to quit kidding around did the pilot realize the instructor was dead.from the U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, the 57-year-old instructor had suffered a fatal cardiac arrest inside the cockpit but his colleague believed the whole thing was a joke for the entirety of the journey.
Although the pilot was able to safely land the aircraft, the safety report concluded that “had this occurred on another flight the outcome could have been different.” The instructor—who was known to have had a history of high blood pressure and was overweight—had passed a medical four months before the fateful flight.
People who had spoken to the instructor on the morning of his death said he had been “his normal cheerful self and there were no indications that he was feeling unwell.” He had just flown with with three other people for a trial lesson before he climbed into the cockpit of the Piper PA-28 where he died atThe pilot didn’t recall the instructor saying anything after takeoff, the report said, or after his head rolled back in his chair.
After landing, the instructor remained on the pilot’s shoulder. At that point, the pilot realized something was wrong and raised the alarm. “The fire crew and the air ambulance medical crew, who are based at the airport, attempted to revive the instructor but he remained unresponsive and they were unable to save him,” the report says.Capt. Michael Johnston died of a heart attack while flying between Boston and Phoenix, prompting an emergency landing.
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