King Air Pilot falls unconscious
 

Just heard this on the news

World News Australia - Passenger takes control as pilot faints

Report doesn't sound all that accurate surprise surprise, I heard the 'passenger' was a dead head/navigator.

yeh I listened to the poor bugger as he made his approach. It was firescan 233 (i think its 233), the kingair. I think its rego is LAB. Anyway, he sounded pretty shaken up but made a safe approach and had services waiting for him.

Glad he's ok! :)

yikes thats a bit of a worry :eek:

very sad....hope it was not GK? Does anyone know?

hope its not serious and he keeps his medical

The king Air is an amazing aircraft, and I am sure its not the plane at fault, but there have been a number of King Air drivers suffer in recent years:uhoh:............ if you were supersticious...:ooh:

I hope all concerned are OK and its not game over for the pilot.

Regards to the pilot an hopes he makes a full recovery.

For the young ones it is a good example of why you should have insurence on your medicals. I have known a few people that have lost their class 1 and therefore their career with no insurance. All that time and money up in smoke, very sad.

Highly unlikely, sadly. There would have to be extraordinary extenuating circumstances.

Good this is that, the King Air's can be flown single pilot crew. :ok:

So, Dr Remoak, you have examined the patient have you? :hmm:

Maybe it stalled......maybe it didnt........;);)

Don't need to. Unexplained losses of consciousness during flight almost always result in the permanent loss of a medical. Even when you can demonstrate that there was a reasonable medical explanation, it can be difficult to retain your medical, particularly if there is any possibility that it could recur. I would have thought that was obvious.

Had about six colleagues have this happen to them for one reason or another, over the last 20 years. They all lost their medicals on the spot and never got them back, despite trying for years in some cases. One was just a simple case of hypoglaecymia - still never got his medical back...

So what about a simple case of Gastro? Surely they can't permanently remove your medical for that?

morno

This is a replay of a King Air incident enroute Norfolk or Lord Howe Island to Sydney some 20 years or so ago. Believe the pilot never got his ticket back.

They can, and almost certainly will. The point is that anything that causes you to lose consciousness that suddenly is a no-no. I've had gastro before and the onset took hours, not minutes or seconds, and I never lost consciousness - although the effects can be debilitating.

The medical people won't (and shouldn't) take the risk of a re-ocurrance, simple as that.

Sure, I understand what you're saying Remoak about being sudden etc., and I agree in this instance it is highly unlikely that it was gastro and this poor bugger will more than likely loose his medical for life. But consider the following scenario. You're flying in the outback, it's a 3hr flight, with very little choices of landing points along the way that would be able to provide medical assistance once on the ground.

In the few of hours before the flight, you're feeling a bit off, but put it down to maybe just being a bit de-hydrated and hungry. You drink up, have a bite to eat and think you'll be right in the next hour or so. Meanwhile, it's time to leave, you jump into the aircraft and off you fly. Half way into the flight you're really starting to feel unwell now. Maybe that curry you got from the Mindil Beach Markets last night wasn't such a good idea after all. You're now rapidly going from just a bit of a pain in the gut, to severe sickness.

You have a look around and find a major town close by that will be able to provide medical assistance. However you're now starting to feel faint, throw up massively, and pass out for 30 seconds or so (I have experienced severe gastro before where I did pass out. Thankfully it wasn't while I was flying!). Thankfully you wake up, decide that town close to you is a pretty good option now and you divert and make a safe landing to be met by medical personell on the ground.

Surely if the above situation transpired, and it was clearly evident that the sudden onset of severe gastro was the cause, they couldn't take your medical away from you? Hopefully common sense would prevail, but seeing it's CASA, that's not always possible, :bored:.

morno

Lets let the DAME and the related specialists decide what went wrong and if he or she will fly again. Many different things can cause a person to faint and not all of them will result in a permanent loss of licence.

Best leave it to the experts.

Mr Hat said it again, indeed I believe that was the point Horatio may well have been making as well. Leave it to those who deal in these matters.

I also wish the person involved a speedy recovery (if they haven't already recovered) and hopefully it isn't anything serious.

Personally, I blame global warming.

Virtually all of them do. No authority is going to take a risk on it happening again. In one or two of the airlines I have worked for, any such event would be instant suspension and eventual dismissal on medical grounds. Airlines don't want to take the risk either. Severe gastro is probably the only one you could get away with.

Sure, leave it to the medicos, no problem with that. However it is a salutary warning to all pilots to not get themselves into a situation where they might get sick during the flight, and morno's scenario should ring a few bells with most of us!

Agree on the global warming idea though.