Emergency landing after pilot dies

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A pilot who fell ill at the controls of his plane forcing his passenger to land the light aircraft has died, police have said.

The man collapsed in the cockpit of the plane after taking off, leaving the “inexperienced” passenger to make an emergency landing.

The plane landed at Humberside Airport UK under the guidance of instructors called in by air traffic controllers.

Police said they were unable to confirm the cause of death.

A spokesman for Humberside Police said: “A post mortem is to be undertaken following the sad death of the pilot of a light aircraft which landed safely at Humberside Airport yesterday evening.

“The post mortem is likely to take place tomorrow afternoon. The results of the examination will determine whether it is necessary to prepare a file for reference to the coroner.”

The plane was landed at Humberside Airport by a passenger under the guidance of two flying instructors

He added the death was not being treated as suspicious and said: “In accordance with the wishes of the family of the deceased, police will not be confirming the identity of the pilot nor releasing any video footage of the incident.”

Police, fire and ambulance crews were called to the North Lincolnshire airport after a distress call was made from the light aircraft at about 18:25 BST.

Eyewitness saw sparks

Two flying instructors were called in to advise the passenger, named only as “John”, on how to bring the plane down and a RAF Sea King helicopter was scrambled to provide assistance.

One of them, Roy Murray, said: “I think without any sort of talk-down he would have just gone into the ground and that would have been the end of it.”

The passenger and pilot were the only people on board the Cessna 172 aircraft, which had taken off from Sandtoft Airfield 25 miles (40km) away.

It is believed the two men had flown to Skegness and were returning to Sandtoft when the pilot collapsed.

Speaking at a press conference earlier, Mr Murray said the novice flyer did four circuits of the airport before landing at about 19:30.

He said: “The gentleman was called John, that’s all I knew.

“We had to get him to do two to three circuits. The last one was not very good so we told him to go round again and on the fourth one he managed it.

“He did a beautiful landing in my opinion.

“He was calm. He was answering the calls I made to him quite professionally.

“I would not be frightened to fly with him.”

Eyewitnesses described seeing sparks as the plane landed.

Stuart Sykes, who saw the aircraft land, said: “It came down with a bump, a bump, a bump, hit the front end down, I heard some crashing and it’s come to a halt.”

Two incoming flights were delayed while the aircraft was removed from the runway.

‘Nothing short of phenomenal’

Richard Tomlinson, a friend of the pilot and his passenger, told BBC Radio Sheffield the passenger was “nothing short of a hero”.

He said: “For somebody who is not a pilot but has been around airfields and been a passenger on several occasions to take control is nothing short of phenomenal.

“The man is nothing short of a hero.”

Mr Tomlinson, himself an amateur pilot, said of the man who died: was a “very experienced pilot”.

He added: “He had been flying for many years.

“Only this week I was sat having a cup of tea and airfield banter [with both men].

“They were both very funny gentlemen to have a conversation with.

“It is very, very sad news.”

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9-Year-Old Arrested for Stowing Away on Airplane

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That 9-year-old Minnesota boy who slipped through security and hopped a flight to Las Vegas is no stranger to child protection investigators, who say he has a history of sneaking into a water park and was recently arrested after allegedly stealing a car, according to an e-mail obtained by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
And it turns out that his mother works at the airport where he began his journey, a source close to the situation said.
The boy’s father told CNN affiliate WCCO that his son has had issues in the past.
“I don’t have an angel, OK. I have a 9-year-old,” he said. “To me, he’s got a behavioral problem.”
The father, who WCCO did not identify, said the family has been unsuccessfully trying to get help for his son for years.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Janine Moore, area director of the Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department, wrote in an e-mail to agency administrators and County Board members of the boy’s “pattern of behavior,” which has included hanging out at a Bloomington, Minnesota, water park and blending in with a large family to slip through without paying.
She describes him as a “challenging” child, according to the Star Tribune.
The newspaper reported that there is an investigation into whether the boy’s mother, who works at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, helped him fly to Las Vegas. The newspaper did not report who was conducting that investigation.
The boy’s father told WCCO that his wife reported their son missing on Thursday morning — a day after they last saw him, leaving the house to take out the trash.
“We’re not bad parents. We didn’t think nothin’ of it,” the father said. “We thought he was at his friend’s house.”
The father said he never expected his son would take the light rail from their North Minneapolis neighborhood to the airport and sneak onto an airplane.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “You’ve got so (many) security checks at these airports. How can you let a 9-year-old sneak past security, get on the plane, without anyone stopping him, questioning him or anything?”
Authorities have been trying to figure out how the child was able to slip past security and airline gate agents and board Delta Flight 1651 without detection.
The boy went through security with other passengers, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Sunday, but officials were still trying to figure out how he did it — and how he then got on the flight Thursday.
Delta reviewing video to determine how boy hopped flight to Vegas
Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the airport, said that surveillance video shows the boy briefly talking to a Delta gate agent before the flight.
A short while later, the video shows that the agent became “distracted,” and that’s when the boy was able to sneak through and board the plane, he said.
Hogan said the crew “became suspicious of the child’s circumstances” during the flight. Crew members got in touch with authorities in Las Vegas and turned the boy over to Child Protective Services, Hogan said in a statement.
The boy, who remained in Nevada, will be returned to Minneapolis because that is “where issues will be addressed,” a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN. It was unclear when he would return to Minnesota.
The agency did not immediately return a CNN telephone message Tuesday seeking comment on the Star Tribune report.
According to the Star Tribune, Moore said child protective workers have investigated the boy’s family life four times.
“The reports have been inconsistent and there have been no injuries to the child; however, there is a pattern of behavior,” the newspaper quoted her as saying in the e-mail.
The newspaper said Moore wrote that the boy was arrested two weeks ago after allegedly stealing a car. The e-mail didn’t indicate whether the boy was the driver of the car or a passenger, the newspaper reported.
The newspaper also said Moore wrote that the boy has alleged that his mother has held a knife to his throat and that she was “stabbed and died.”
“Typically, staff can tell if a child is lying, but with this child, they are unsure what is going on,” the newspaper quoted the e-mail as reading.
Delta on Monday said it was reviewing surveillance video. Flight crew members alerted authorities to the boy.

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Boeing restructures some commercial airplane unit functions

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Boeing Co. said on Thursday that it is restructuring its commercial airplane strategy and marketing functions, a move that comes just days after the company lost a $9.5 billion order in Japan, previously its most secure market.

The action, announced in a memo by Boeing Commercial Airplane Chief Executive Ray Conner obtained by Reuters, comes after Japan Airlines Co Ltd on Monday picked Airbus planes to replace its Boeing 777s, rather than the next-generation Boeing 777X model.

“You probably wouldn’t have seen this happen if they had won JAL,” said Ron Epstein, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

“Boeing is looking at their sales strategy” following the Japanese loss, he added.

Conner linked the shifts to the retirement of Boeing veteran Mike Bair, who he said would step down Nov. 1. Bair oversees the marketing and strategy groups.

In the new structure, marketing functions under Bair would be shifted to the sales group and led by marketing Vice President Randy Tinseth, who would report to global sales chief John Wojick.

Strategy and business development functions will shift to the finance group, and will be led by Kevin Schemm, who will be head of finance and strategy.

Boeing confirmed the memo is accurate but declined to comment further.

 

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Government Shutdown Means Airplane Safety Checks Are Suspended

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Think it’s a problem that you can’t visit a national park or your favorite museum at the Smithsonian? How about passenger airplanes not getting safety inspections?

Due to the federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration has furloughed some 3,000 aviation safety inspectors, employees charged with making sure that aircraft operate safely and according to regulations.

“There is no one doing this job now,” says Kori Blalock Keller, spokesperson for Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, the union representing aviation safety inspectors.

Aviation safety inspectors examine commercial planes and their maintenance records, talk to pilots to flag any potential problems, and may even ride along in the cockpit to make sure that procedures are being followed. Some of these checks take place during ramp inspections, a mostly random but consistent program of boarding planes for inspection while they’re on layovers.

“A lot of times, our inspectors catch little things and correct them before that plane takes off again,” Blalock Keller says. “If there are problems, the planes stay on the ground.”

According to a statement by the FAA, its Aviation Safety Organization is currently operating with a staff of 310 out of approximately 7,000 employees nationwide. The 310 include “managers in all field offices who will monitor the system and call back employees as necessary. If the furlough extends longer than a few days, we will begin to recall as many as 2,500 employees back to work incrementally, including safety inspectors, engineers and technical support staff, depending on need.”

A separate FAA statement reads: “Safety is our top priority. The FAA continues to support President Obama’s FY2014 budget, and strongly believes that Congress should resolve the lapse in appropriations immediately.”

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$1 million tossed from airplane in Bolivia

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Bolivian officials say they’ve found $1 million in a bag tossed from an airplane.

Government Minister Carlos Romero said anti-drug police spotted a man who was signalling to a low-flying plane at a clandestine landing strip. As the plane swooped low, a bag filled with money was tossed out.

Romero said police arrested three people and seized two vehicles, a rifle and an automatic weapon during Sunday’s operating in Tigre, a town in Santa Cruz state. The plane was not identified, and escaped. He says the operation foiled plans to create a drug factory.

Bolivian officials defend use of coca as a traditional stimulant, but try to prosecute those who try to turn it into cocaine and trade in it.

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