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Stewardess assists with plane's emergency landing

Stewardess assists with planes emergency landing An air stewardess was forced to help make an emergency landing of a passenger jet after the co-pilot suffered a mental breakdown, according to reports.

During a flight from Toronto to London, the Air Canada co-pilot had to be removed from the plane's controls after going through a nervous breakdown.

He was then restrained and sedated by doctors so that the stewardess could assist in making the emergency landing, reports Sky News.

According to a report by the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit, the co-pilot became "rambling and disjointed" before refusing to observe the plane's safety measures.

The pilot was forced to judge that his colleague had become so "belligerent and uncooperative" that he was unfit to continue doing his job.

Following this, the pilot made a request for anyone on board with flight experience to assist him in the emergency landing.

However, no one proved forthcoming apart from a stewardess, who held a commercial pilot's license but her cockpit instrument reading qualification had expired.

The stewardess then assisted the pilot to safely land the Boeing 767 containing 150 passengers at Shannon Airport in Ireland.

Despite not indicating the co-pilot's psychiatric diagnosis, the report did indicate he was a fully licensed professional with some 6,500 hours of flying time.

The man has apparently spent 11 days in a mental health ward in Ireland before being transferred by air ambulance back to Canada.


Airline News posted on 21 November 2008

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