Heroic Passenger Lands Airplane in Florida

A Floridian interior designer with no flying experience whatsoever unexpectedly taking over the pilot’s seat on Tuesday, 10 May.

Darren Harrison, 39, was aboard a Cessna 208 Caravan and en-route to Lakeland after a fishing trip in the Bahamas, when the pilot suddenly suffered a medical emergency and “became incapacitated”.

Almost immediately, Harrison sprang into action and radioed air traffic control in Fort Pierce for help.

“I’ve got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent,” he told air traffic controller Robert Morgan. “I have no idea how to fly the airplane, but I am.”

Alarmed but calm, Morgan carefully guided Harrison step-by-step towards Palm Beach International Airport – to do this, he printed out a picture of the cockpit controls to aid Harrison with his navigation.

“Try to hold the wings level and see if you can start descending for me,” was one of Morgan’s instructions, per an audio recording of the transmission. “Push forward on the controls and descend at a very slow rate.”

Amazingly, the interior designer landed safely on one of the runways at the airport, where an emotional Morgan later met him, hugged him, and gave him a 10 out of 10 for his fledgling flying skills.

“I know [Darren] was probably scared to death but it doesn’t surprise me him doing what he did,” Harrison’s uncle Glenn told a local media outlet. “He’s pretty good about keeping his cool; it doesn’t surprise me that he kept his composure, followed directions and everything turned out great.”

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