His RT was too professional not to have any piloting experience. So there is more to the storry. Only wonder why ATC asked for a frequency change. The last thing you want is a passenger fiddling with the frequency setting and loosing the connection.

30 seconds in you can tell he is at least comfortable with the basics - tells the controller confidently his decent rate and current altitude. could of simply had a bunch of time playing sims or maybe "flew" a bit with friends over the years as co pilot on their light singles.

Salute!

Lots more on this story, and if my hired pilot had a probem I would have figured out the radio button and said the same thing, but that I had flown other planes before. Big difference between an innocent SLF and someone who had flown before. Especially the radio R/T.

I always wondered if I could handle a B737 or Bus 320 if asked. Never flew a heavy, but aero is aero, and if I could work the radios I could make a good approach versus just giving up and becoming a smoking hole.

More to this story, IMHO.

Gums sends...

Great outcome, everybody walked away and they can reuse the airplane!

However, I agree with others here - the 'pax' sounds way too comfortable on the radio and also uses phraseology like 'maintaining niner (!) onehundred'. Could of course just be an aviation enthusiast and flight simmer or perhaps someone who has flown with friends a lot. That said, the way the approach was flown - either that guy had some experience or he's the most amazing natural - or both!

Does anyone know what happened to the pilot? Can't find any info.

He was sitting up front next to the pilot. Statistically the odds are that this wasn't the first time. And that means there's a good chance he's controlled that plane before as well, and listened to countless radio calls. Whether he's licensed or not will soon come out, but passengers with significant stick time can't be that unusual in light singles like that. For what it's worth I'm a helicopter pilot, I travel a lot around Canada with an engineer in the other seat. I know for a fact that some of those engineers (who are not pilots) would not have much trouble landing the machine if the dual controls happen to be in and the conditions are not too tricky

That's a pilot!
He uses correct terminology - maintaining ninety one hundred.
He knows what squawk means and is able to switch codes to 7700.
He uses appropriate coms brevity.
And he's calm... considering what's happened.

Could of been approaching the edge of the frequencies range?

Not too many pilots saying 10-4 on the radio where I live. ATC would tell you off for not using properly phraseology (unless you are in an actual emergency then anything goes).

I suspect he's a trained first responder. When I think about these rare but not unique events, the common thread seems to be that the passenger knew enough about how to use the radio that they could communicate with ATC, they then learn the rest of what they need to know as they go.

I was initially very skeptical about this. But I believe that he’s not a pilot: he says 10-4 at several points, he never reads back an instruction and he called a squawk code a frequency. But I didn’t hear any instructions for the approach and landing, I look forward to hearing the full story.

We'll find out (maybe) but I don't have any particular doubts about the situation as described.

Among other things we don't hear the really tricky bits (final energy management, pattern, getting lined up) since those were apparently coached via cellphone.

A lot of folks with no aviation experience do have both comms experience, and situational experience to cope with emergent situations calmly: surface-based military, paramedics, law enforcement, firefighters...and probably some others I left out (apologies!)

And there are a lot of "Walter Mittys" out there who may have acquired a significant amount of "ground-school" knowledge, from magazines, books, cockpit youtubes, and yes - simming. Not operational knowledge or experience, but every little bit helps.

As far as I know this was a privately owned aircraft and my best guess this was the owner or at the very least a very frequent front seat passenger.
In any case he did a great job considering the circumstances.
Any word on the pilot and if he survived?

Registered to a pair of Connecticut companies.

Which is the common way to own a “business-asset” in the US.
Probably not their only plane, expect a jet also.
Doesn’t change my expectations that it’s the owner and a very experienced passenger who’s been paying attention or even taken the wheel on occasion.

Gums, with your background you would sort it out even without outside help. Don't need any FMC stuff in a radar environment. The A320/B737 would just be another type for you. They were designed for old buggers, like us, to safely operate.

Concur with zzuf. Turn all the JBs off and fly it like a C150 - worked for me.

I know naught about this event's detail. However, for what little it may be worth, years ago I was working on an aircraft support project. Two LAMEs were my operator-support-go-on-lots-of-world-trips guys. Both were active FS junkies (as well as being top troops). As far as I knew, neither had ever touched a pole.

I took them along one night on a 734 sim session and, while the studs were having a break, gave them each a run (motion off). Each managed a takeoff, circuit and landing to a respectable standard, considering. Not decorative and pretty but certainly workable. Raw data, manual throttle.

For what it may be worth.

With his name in the public domain, some cursory searching shows him here: Lakeland Window Treatments - Carpet, Blinds, Drapes (sunshineinterior.com)

Darren...

Hi JT along the same lines, years ago flying an ETPS Viscount out of Boscombe down to Hurn, with a RAF flight engineer in the RHS ( he was there because I knew nothing about the aircraft systems etc). Anyway, he flew a couple of really good ILS's IMC breaking out at about 400ft - good landings, no prompting required. I suspect he may have done similar before😁

I was always made to feel inferior by the way the 747-400 could land itself. All you need to do is select reverse and then apply the brakes. I suspect that most modern pax aircraft are similar. Just remember to disengage George before you try to take the high-speed turn-off!

Mog

Never had any pilot training, but - as would be expected - after 40 years in the industry, I have a very good understanding of how aircraft fly.
About 20 years ago, I was in one of Boeing's 777 simulators with a training pilot where he was checking on some concerns I'd raised. After we finished up the planned testing, we still had a fair amount of simulator time left. The training pilot asked me if I wanted to have some fun.
He set the sim up for a manual landing at the old Hong Kong airport (which I understand was one of the trickiest major airports in the world for landing). Then he said go for it (purely visual approach). Now, I have a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, (at the time) 20+ years practical experience with countless hours on the flight deck during flight testing, and I didn't have to use the radio. I also had a trainer sitting next to me coaching me. But I pretty much nailed the landing. Bottom line is that - provided everything is working - it wasn't that hard (although I was nervous enough that I was sweating pretty good).

It's when the weather goes south and/or things go wrong that pilots earn their money.