Airline pilot is stricken after takeoff, dies

[MaineDem]

McALLEN, Texas (AP) -- The pilot of a Continental Airlines flight became ill after takeoff and was later pronounced dead after the plane made an emergency landing Saturday, a company spokeswoman said.

The 210 passengers on the flight, which departed from Houston, Texas, were never in danger and the co-pilot landed the plane safely, Continental spokeswoman Macky Osorio said.

The airline said only that the pilot suffered a "serious medical problem." Continental believes the pilot died of natural causes, Osorio said. The pilot's name was not released.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/20/pilot.dies.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

[Catch22Dem]

1. That's sad

And no, those passengers weren't in any danger.

[whistle]

2. This sounds very suspicious

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Not at all. These things happen -- though rarely.

Pilots get regular required medical exams, but even so they can be suddenly incapacitated. It's one reason there are always at least two pilots. But there's nothing suspicious about it at all.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. One serious condition that wouldn't prevent flying is a food allergy

My company had a client die on a plane on the way to a meeting because he ate something cooked in peanut oil (this was before there was as much general knowledge of nut allergies.) If the pilot had a nut or seafood allergy, for example, it could kill him that quickly.

Yes, it's a good thing that co-pilots are required.

[INdemo]

6. So shouldn't pilots be required to undergo allergy tests?

[wakeme2008]

7. Most ppl with an allergy know it BUT

like with peanut, you can eat something that you think is safe and it is NOT.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Exactly.

[havocmom]

8. One can develop allergies that were never a problem before.

And people with no history of any health problems do have heart attacks and such.

Everybody dies. Sometime it is unpredictable, even with good regular medical exams.

[aquart]

18. It wouldn't help if the allergy hadn't developed yet.

I became allergic to penicillin at 19. A friend became allergic to shellfish at forty.

[colorado_ufo]

43. My allergies started at age 35.

However, they didn't start with a huge, anaphylactic episode. They did get that way after a couple more inadvertent exposures, before I found out the problem (through observations, trial, and error).

[Bark Bark Bark]

20. Developed "Aspirin Asthma"...OVERNIGHT

One day, Bufferin without a problem; the next, Bayer sends me, with my lungs filling with fluid and my eyelids puffed shut and oozing yellow gunk, to the hospital for three days of observation (...because they didn't know if I'd have a reaction to the shot they gave me to control the symptoms!).

Mother Nature's idea of a practical joke, I guess.

[Mz Pip]

21. Aspirin allergy,too

Took it for 50 years without a problem - then one night - bam! anaphylactic shock. Scary stuff. Now I carry an EPI-PEN and benedryl with me at all times. Never know when I might react to something else.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[greenbriar]

26. hubby carries the pen ... actually we all have one

he is allergic to Wheat and Oats. Just in the last two years


never a problem before

[MagickMuffin]

31. Since you brought this up

about your hubby's food allergies and that they seemed to happen in adulthood, does it make you wonder what is going on?

What are your hubby's symptoms? The reason I ask is because I think that perhaps it has something to do with GMO's/GMF or if you prefer Frankenfood.

I have developed a reaction to corn and peanuts. My symptoms include swelling from the knees down and red spots, sometimes the spots are tiny other times they merge into a massive red spot. This usually last for a few days and then goes away. I don't have insurance so I have no way of knowing what is going on with me. I've done my own research and think that I might be suffering from vasculitis. For which there is apparently no cure.

[Fovea]

40. Here is one verified problem

My partner can't eat corn.
Anything with corn in it seems to be like russian roulette. It started about 4 years ago.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/epacorner.cfm

[Thothmes]

33. Medical Exams

I recall an incident about 25 years ago. An aviator captain in the Navy had just completed his annual flight physical at the clinic on North Island. Got to the front door when leaving and died of a massive heart attack on the front steps.

[Warpy]

10. Why?

Coronaries happen and they can kill men with that kind of a genetic predisposition in their thirties.

That's why we have copilots.

[Catch22Dem]

14. It does? How?

I mean, I'm all for conspiracy theories, but come on.

[kath]

16. Why suspicious? - he likely had a heart attack or stroke.

[goforit]

19. Or a pulmonary embolism. This is so sad.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Bummer. Scary.

[xultar]

11. I bet they find - myocarditis. I saw it on Dr. G Medical Examiner...

That is some scary shit cuz it could happen to anyone quickly.

[LisaL]

12. Could have ended really badly if the co-pilot was not there.

[Catch22Dem]

13. Not there?

They wouldn't have taken off.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. The co-pilot HAS to be there.

The plane isn't going anywhere without the co-pilot, just like it isn't going anywhere without the required number of flight attendants. All transport-category aircraft require at least two pilots, and each can fly the airplane alone if necessary.

[krispos42]

23. I saw a documentry on TV once

The flight crew all ate fish, and one by one they all died. One of the passenger had to fly the plane, but he had a drinking problem and wasn't sure sure he could do it. Fortunately he was able to land the plane with minimal damage at the airport, but some weird inflatable guy stole the plane at the end.

[Penance]

24. Surely you're not serious!

:D

[krispos42]

29. I am serious

And stop calling me "Shirley"!

:rofl:

[Kingshakabobo]

25. Surely you must be joking! n/t

[krispos42]

30. I'm not. And stop calling me "Shirley"!

We have to get this man to a hospital immediately!

[toopers]

32. A hospital!

What is it?

[krispos42]

34. It's a big white building full of patients.

But that's not what's important right now...
:rofl:

[northzax]

27. i totally saw that, I think

one of those HBO documentaries, right?

[Tellurian]

28. thanks for making me fall off my chair.. :)

:rofl:

[pitohui]

17. what a shame

at least he went out doing something he loved and the other crew and passengers were landed safely

[bmbmd]

22. Common things happen commonly.

Uncommon things happen uncommonly. Odds are he had a coronary or a cerebral hemmorhage.

[DemoTex]

35. "Pilot Incapacitation" is anticipated in the airline training syllabus.

There is subtle incapacitation and sudden incapacitation. Sleep, heart attack, injury (bird through windshield), seat malfunction, stroke, anaphylatic reaction, etc., come to mind.

Captains and first officers are trained to watch for the cues of incapacitation and act decisively. First officers ("co-pilots") are trained and fully qualified to fly a transport jet alone, should the captain be out of the picture. In fact, at that point, the first officer becomes the pilot-in-command (captain).

[olddad56]

36. it is indeed sad. Would have been a lot more sad if they didn't have a co-pilot.

[alarimer]

37. Does anyone have more information on this?

A friend of mine worked as a pilot for Continental (or at least used to when I knew him). The article doesn't even indicate his age so I don't have a clue. It probably isn't but still..

[Savannah_H]

38. reply

It probably happens more than we know.

[tabasco]

39. You never know when you are going to go,

so the best thing to do is be as nice a person you can while you are here.

[mcscajun]

41. Details Remain Sketchy On Continental Pilot's Death

January 25, 2007

The pilot who died while flying a Boeing 757 for Continental Airlines on Saturday afternoon "experienced a serious medical problem which required the aircraft to land immediately," Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark told AVweb on Wednesday. The pilot's name and age have not been released yet by the airline, and the company is not releasing additional details about the pilot or the nature of his affliction, "although he is believed to have died of natural causes," Clark said. She added that he was based in Newark, N.J., and had 21 years of service with the airline. The co-pilot diverted the aircraft to McAllen International Airport in south Texas, where an ambulance crew was waiting. Lt. Scott Luke of the McAllen Police Department told the Houston Chronicle that doctors and nurses who were among the flight's 210 passengers had assisted the crew in trying to revive the stricken pilot. "They had done compressions, CPR on him onboard the aircraft," Luke said. The airplane flew on to its destination in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, later that day, with a new crew. Industry sources told AVweb that the stricken pilot was 58 years old. FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette said on Wednesday she doesn't expect the incident to affect the agency's policy regarding the age-60 rule one way or the other. Administrator Marion Blakey is expected to announce a decision about changing this rule within the next few weeks, she said. Since November, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has allowed airline crews to include one pilot up to age 65 as long as the other pilot is under 60. The current age-60 rule has long been disputed by various pilot groups in the U.S., although pilot unions in general support it.

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/13_4b/briefs/Details_Sketchy_Continental_Pilot_194307-1.html

[slackmaster]

42. It must have been "Incontinental Airlines" for the surviving crew

What a horrible experience for them!