Aeroflot Cpt. died during flight preparations
 

According to german news (in german language) an Aeroflot captain died 20 minutes before scheduled takeoff during flight preparations in his cockpit seat. Condolences to the relatives.
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,280943,00.html

How sad to die in harness, he was only 55. I hope he was a happy man doing a job he loved. We all hope for a retirement when we can look back on our flying days. A reminder to enjoy flying - now.

Thank heavens he didn't die at the controls :rolleyes:

Anyway may he R. I. P.

This is something that comes up with boring regularity in Base Checks...how often has it really happened?

I know that a training captain once pulled this on me on a (positioning) final command line-check and did it so well that I actually began to think that he wasn't fooling :uhoh:

Will

The Captain of Flight NW1949, a Boeing 757 en route from Milwaukee to Minneapolis, passed out while the aircraft was on approach to MSP Airport on Tuesday morning.
The copilot took over as the 757 was descending through 12.000 feet over Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and landed the aircraft around 11am.

Happened to a KLM captain in mid flight a few years back. Others here would know the details better. Married man with family to add to the sadness of it.

I suppose even these regular medical checks can't account for everything. :(

Was also given this on Final Line check.

Happened to a Brits Captain a few years back in AGP - FO took over but then had GPWS (genuine), ultimately landed safely.

It does happen now and then, a Turkish pilote died in Denmark onboard his passenger plane.

This happened on January 4 at 0035L. No doctor was in attendance in spite of the fact that a Port Health Authority doctor was on duty at the airport. The ambulance arrived at the nearest hospital (Princess Margaret) at 0105L, where the captain was pronounced dead. Not very impressive for an internatinal airport of Chek Lap Kok's stature.

A few years back a Diesel 8 freighter Captain expired while on approach,
the FO took over landed, and had no real issue until rollout as he had no access to the tiller, the aircraft departed the runway as it was coming to a stop with no real damage