Flightglobal: Subtle incapacitation of an Air Canada Boeing 767-300 first officer during a transatlantic flight led the captain to divert the aircraft to Shannon, Ireland,......Author: David LearmountDate: 19 November 2008Read the full article
Author: David Learmount
Date: 19 November 2008
Read the full article
Incredible story this and great resourcefulness from the cabin attendant in question, it is funny how these things get reported though, as David calls it "Subtle incapacitation", yet the Times Online goes for something a little more sensationalist:
Flight attendant forced to land plane after co-pilot suffers mental breakdown
AirSpace - more than just hot air
It sounds like the Captain , even though he was trained and capable of land ing the aircraft "on his own", used terriic CRM or TRM , to utilise all resources available, Great captaining indeed, well done.
Just doing a quick search on Air Canada shows that this isn't the first time this year that Air Canada has had pilot "issues"
Good spot Mav, I must admit I thought I'd heard something similar happening before with ACA.
Whilst fully realising that I am likely to get shot to pieces, dare I venture the query that, in the event of one pilot becoming incapacitated, the continued safe operation of the flight does not in any way whatsoever depend on the coincidence of a cabin crew member happening to be the holder of a Commercial Pilot Licence. Was he perhaps familiar with the type from a previous period as a First Officer? Am trying to imagine exactly what help he might have provided? The aircraft is perfectly capable of being operated by one pilot. The Pan call seems quite reasonable as it enabled ATC to ease the workload somewhat and to be very aware that the pilot would be busier than normal. However, single-pilot IFR ops are routinely flown by huge numbers of pilots world-wide; and in much more 'primitive' aeroplanes. My thought is not to in any way intended to demean the captain or assisting crew member. But why do I have a sort of feeling that, had it happened to me, I believe i would rather be left in peace to just get on with the job with minimal other distractions. Was there some other factor that decided the captain to ask for help? It might well be that the two chaps actually knew each other quite well? Please feel free to elucidate on the matter if you know a lot more than I about this specific event.