New licence??
From an article on yahoo, typical media.
An air stewardess was forced to help land a plane when the co-pilot had a mental breakdown and had to be forcibly removed from the cockpit, an Irish investigation has concluded.
The report by the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit into an incident in January applauded the decision-making of the Air Canada pilot and the cockpit skills of the flight attendant, who stepped into the co-pilot's seat for the emergency diversion to Shannon Airport in western Ireland.
Noone was injured on the flight from Toronto to London, after the co-pilot had to be sedated by doctors on board.
The report did not specify the psychiatric diagnosis; the co-pilot was hospitalised for 11 days in Ireland before being flown by air ambulance back to Canada.
It said the co-pilot had more than 6,500 hours' flying time, about half on board Boeing 767s, and had recently passed a medical examination.
But it said the pilot noticed immediately that his co-pilot was not in good professional shape on the day of the flight, arriving late to the cockpit after all the safety checks and paperwork had been completed.
He also reported that the co-pilot's behaviour worsened once they were airborne, and that he began talking in a "rambling and disjointed" manner, took another nap, and then refused to buckle his seat belt or observe other safety procedures.
The report said the pilot summoned several flight attendants to remove the co-pilot from the cockpit. Doctors from Britain and Canada on board determined that the co-pilot was confused and disoriented.
An air stewardess with a current commercial pilot's licence was able to provide assistance, though her licence for reading cockpit instruments had expired.