Originally Posted by Old Akro
I did some research into this a while back. I don't recall much detail, but I do recall that it is very rare for a heart attack to cause a crash. It is however moderately common for a pilot to die after landing. I gather one's body keeps it together long enough to get out of the immediate situation.
My DAME and I had a chat about this a while back.
From memory (and I'm probably paraphrasing him horribly here), his view was that almost nobody dies at the controls of an aircraft of a heart attack or similar condition. When people have one coming they decide they're not really feeling tip top, and go to bed, where they die in their sleep. They don't use it as a cue that perhaps they should go flying!