'Hero' passenger helps land plane
 

From breakingnews.ie
'Hero' passenger helped land plane at Dublin Airport | BreakingNews.ie

It has emerged that a passenger helped to land a plane at Dublin Airport early yesterday morning.

The Lufthansa Boeing 747 was en route from New York to Frankfurt with 264 passengers on board when the first officer became "incapacitated" while it was flying over the Atlantic.

Once the crew announced that the plane was being diverted, the passenger asked why, and offered his assistance.

The German national, thought to be a qualified pilot, then helped bring the plane down safely in an emergency landing at Dublin Airport shortly before 6am yesterday morning.

The Air Accident Investigations Unit is examining the incident.

Kevin Doyle of the Evening Herald said that Lufthansa has branded the helpful passenger a "hero".

"The understanding is that the passenger in question was an off-duty qualified pilot who had some experience with a different airline, so he has no connection at all with Lufthansa, but he had flown planes in the past," he said.

"Lufthansa said that they were very lucky to have a man with his qualifications on board at the time."

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport has been notified and is investigating.

Experts from the AAIU attended the plane after it touched down in Dublin.

“Whenever you have any sort of medical issue on board, whether it’s a doctor or appropriately qualified person, that’s always appreciated. The flight would have been operated as per procedures and safely even if the off-duty pilot had not been there,” the Lufthansa spokeswoman added.

Does Lufthansa operate the 747 with a 2 men crew only?

Lucky it wasn't a british airline or the captain would already have been sacked for letting someone in the flight deck without a high viz jacket and hand-written authorisation from the home secretary.

Why not..?

If he is a qualified pilot, why is he then branded as a hero? Helpful, ok, but...

Cannot imagine he did anymore than read the checklist.

Oh, it gets better...
 

The death-defying superhero who saved everyone from a fiery/watery/shamrock-adorned grave (insert cliche of choice from the Lazy Journalist's Air Crash Story Generator here -- The Lazy Journalists Plane Story Generator) by bravely reading the landing checklist was himself a licenced and rated B747 pilot.

Hero passenger helps land plane in airport emergency - National News - Independent.ie

Let it go folks. The media has long since reduced itself to the equivalent of Mad Magazine.

"Lufthansa said that they were very lucky to have a man with his qualifications on board at the time."

Are they insane? Are they saying that a single crew situation in Lufthansa would generally cause disaster? Or is it some arse covering as to why the captain let a non-company pilot into the cockpit.

our company sop for pilot incapacitation,requires a cabin crew member to occupy flight deck jump seat and read out landing checklist.thats it.
cannot see any need for a non company pilot to become involved,unless both operating crew are incapacitated,then it is a script for a disaster movie.

What about the "incapacitated" First Officer, is he alive or dead or doesn't his liveliehood sell newspapers?

:mad: press :)

Interesting one... Yes the SOP is to land 1 Flt Crew, 1 CC on J/S reading checklist.

However, given the further emergency (ill F/O), unfamiliar airfield, if I was made aware of a qualified on type pilot on board, it would be a triumph of bureaucracy over commonsense / airmanship to leave them down the back?

I wonder if the passenger had consumed any alcohol?

"Very lucky" would have been more appropriate .. if the other pilot had also suddenly been "incapacitated" :)

NOD,

Really?

As JW said had he been drinking? Qualified on the 744? Licence and documentation with him? Familiar with company SOPs? Are you aware of the individuals training history?

Could he be a Walter Mitty?

Way too many variables to make it a no-brainer I'd think.

Personally, unless the situation was incredibly dire, I'd go with company rated, sober and current given the choice.

Emergency authority of the PIC. Analyze the situation and take appropriate action. The Captain did. He took the best qualified assistance he had.

Having been in this scenario over the Atlantic, I have to say that I did not have a cabin crew read out any checklist nor help in any cockpit duties. Her only responisbility was to look after the incapacitated captain.

Our cabin crew had never been taught to read a checklist nor understand when to challenge or respond. I only had 400 hours on type at the time of the occurence, but felt that flying single pilot was safer than having someone read a checklist for me for their first time, while dealing with an incapacitated captain (high stress level for her).

I believe it should be at the pilot's discretion to use any means available to them at the time, in order to manage the situationa and workload. However, to make it an SOP... :=

I am trying to understand the criticism of the captain's decision.

Lonewolf

The problem is that this passenger could be a clever, lying piece of s...t, trained on MS Flight Simulator, looking for an adrenalin kick, 15 minutes of fame and a story to lighten up his miserable life.

In best case.

He could also have been suicidal poor bastard, with revoked license longing to end his life in an epic pilot´s way, or why not high as a kite from sniffing cocaine as dessert, and eager as hell to show how to master a 744.

Or whatever else you can come up with.

Where I come from, a Hero saves lives, or makes many lives better by their actions, or influences huge life changes for those who can't do it for themselves...Assist the Captain with a checklist? Helpful maybe, but no...he's not a hero. (One fellow does come to mind when I think about helping in an emergency and being off duty at the time...Denny Fitch...you might call him one!)