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A married couple is traveling in a small plane when the pilot suddenly collapses. His wife takes the controls without any flying experience.
Bakersfield – In the USA, a plane trip turned into a real horror trip for a married couple. But thanks to the heroic actions of the pilot’s wife, the whole thing initially ended happily. She managed to land a plane without any flying experience. Nevertheless, the day still took a tragic turn for her.
Pilot suffers heart attack during flight: Wife lands plane safely – without flying experience
Previously, pilot Eliot Alper, who according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal as Real estate agent working, suffered a heart attack during the flight. As a result, he was no longer able to continue flying the small aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 90. But his wife Yvonne Kinane-Wells, who had no flying experience, quickly took over the controls, according to consistent reports from US media.
The wife managed to land the small plane safely in Bakersfield, California, with the help of a radio-connected air traffic controller who gave her detailed instructions. A similarly dramatic incident recently took place on a scheduled flight in Poland.
Radio communications document dramatic moments on board
Radio recordings published by the US media give an idea of the stress the woman was under as she brought the plane to land. “Are you with me?” asks the pilot. “Yes, I am,” replies the involuntary pilot in a slightly shaky voice. She even had to change course to the nearest airport. “We’re setting it up so that after the turn you fly straight toward Bakersfield Airport. Is that okay?” asked the air traffic controller Yvonne. Their short answer: “Ok.” Miraculously, she managed to land safely.
“To my knowledge, this is unprecedented,” Ron Brewster, the director of airports in Kern County, California, told the station CBS about the wife’s heroic deed: “I have never seen anything like this in my entire career.” Both the woman and the Beechcraft King Air 90 aircraft survived the landing unscathed.
Pilot Eliot Alper and his wife Yvonne Kinane-Wells. © facebook.com/eliot.alper
Pilot dies in hospital after heart attack during flight
Her husband was taken to hospital by rescue workers after landing. However, the doctors were no longer able to help the 78-year-old pilot; he died in the clinic Las Vegas Review-Journal citing the man’s company wrote. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the couple were traveling in the twin-engine turboprop plane from Henderson, Nevada to Monterey, California.
A married couple was traveling in the USA with such a Beechcraft King Air 90 machine when the husband and pilot suffered a heart attack during the flight. © Dreamstime/Imago
