Wednesday, April 4, 2012

80 year old woman lands plane with one engine


An 80-year old woman lands a Cessna twin-engine plane after her husband died at the controls. She had very little flying experience and she landed it at a northeastern Wisconsin airport. Her husband just fell unconscious and died at the controls and it was reported that earlier that day, there was minimal gas and one of the engines died out. Another pilot also went up in his plane to guide the 80-year old woman down to safety about 240 kilometers north of Milwaukee. Her son said that she took lessons to take off and land 30 years before this incident and her husband forced her to do it just in case something were to happen. She flied hours by his side. It was also said that she was calmer than the people on the ground communicating with her and she was responding to them by saying, "Don’t you guys think I could do this on my own? Don’t you have confidence in me?" The pilot who helped her was Robert Vuksanovic. Before this woman's husband died, she tried to get her husband in his seat belt but he didn't listen and he fell over after he passed out obviously. Maybe that was the reason to his death.

I think that this is crazy. An 80-year old woman landing a Cessna plane with one engine. She hasn't tried landing a plane since 30 years before this incident. She was put on the spot and she saved her own life. The one thing that really blows my mind is that she remained completely calm the whole time while she was taking over and the people trying to direct her to a safe landing place were freaking out. At that point, she just wanted someone to have some confidence in her and she did it. She was flying the plane with her dead husband on her side and I think that is what gave her the confidence and the strength to help her bring the plane down. Her son must have been scared to death already knowing that his father was dead and that his 80-year old mother is in a plane with nobody flying it. If I was in either her place or her sons place at the time, I would be freaking out.

Link:

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1156297--woman-80-lands-plane-safely-on-one-engine-after-husband-dies-at-controls?bn=1

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