A passenger who safely landed a single-engine plane after the pilot passed out stated he didn’t have time to panic as a result of he knew it was a “life-or-death situation.”
Darren Harrison has been praised for his heroic actions after he landed a Cessna 208 plane flying from the Bahamas to Florida on Tuesday. Harrison, who has no flight expertise, was one in every of two passengers on the plane when the pilot stated he wasn’t feeling effectively after which misplaced consciousness.
“Somebody asked me the other day what my heart rate was or what I thought my heart rate was when all of that was going on and I said probably in the 90s. And they said, what about when it was all over. And I said it was probably 160,” he informed Savannah Guthrie in an unique interview with NBC’s “TODAY” present.
Harrison climbed over three rows of seats into the cockpit because the plane was in a nosedive and moved the unconscious pilot out of the way in which so Harrison might placed on the headphone and alert air site visitors management to the scenario.
“I’ve got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane,” Harrison stated in response to audio from a name he made to air site visitors management at Fort Pierce tower.
He was then instructed by air site visitors controllers and part-time flight teacher Robert “Bobby” Morgan on tips on how to safely fly and land the plane at Palm Beach International Airport.
Harrison stated on “TODAY” that he couldn’t panic as a result of he knew it was a dire scenario.
“By the time I stopped the plane that’s when it hit me,” he stated. “I was pretty calm and collected the whole time because I knew it was a life-or-death situation. Either you do what you have to do to control the situation or you’re gonna die. And that’s what I did.”
An incident report by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office states {that a} name got here in at about 12:27 p.m. for an unconscious pilot with “three souls on board.” About 10 minutes after the call, around 12:38 p.m., the plane safely landed.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
Harrison’s full interview with Guthrie will air on TODAY on Monday, May 16th.
