What would happen if both Pilots died while flying a passenger plane?

Question

I read somewhere that ground control would instruct a passenger to input some sort of special code into the computer which would land the plane on its own.

Dunno if thats true.

Would it be possible for a passenger to actually take control of the plane manually, and try to land it?

Answer 1

Every cabin crew member is trained on how to either set up the auto-land or how to land the plane manually, obviously they will have radio back up confirming everything but the cabin crew are trained to intercept if needed

Answer 2

most commercial jets have autoland, enabling planes to navigate to the runway and land smoothly via the autopilot. I assume the people on the ground will tell you how to set the autoland up.

Answer 3

It's possible for someone who is reasonably intelligent and able to follow instructions precisely to land the aircraft in an emergency, although this has never been necessary in practice.

This is possible because modern airliners are very heavily automated, and are typically flown by computer for most of a flight. The computers can fly the plane from the departure airport to the destination airport, and can also land the plane.  In practice, pilots usually handle take-off and landing, because these are the fun parts (and because take-off isn't fully automated), but the rest of the flight is under computer control.  Of course, the pilots can override the computer at any time, if any problems arise.

Because of all this automation, it's possible to fly the plane and land it without having any experience in manipulating the flight controls.  It's all a matter of pressing buttons and turning k***s, which anyone can do.  Given precise instructions over the radio, any reasonably smart person could press the right buttons and turn the right k***s to land the plane.

Modern technology has far surpassed what you see in Hollywood movies and thriller novels.  It is true that the average person would not be able to land a big jet IF doing so required actually manipulating the flight controls (yoke, rudder, etc.).  Doing that takes a lot of practice.  However, what Hollywood and others overlook is that, in real life, nobody would be flying the plane by hand, anyway—instead, the computers would be instructed to fly the plane to the destination and land it, and that can be done without ever touching the flight controls.

So, yes, it is possible for a non-pilot to land the plane.  No, it has never happened.  Yes, it has actually been tried in full-motion simulators, and it's possible. And no, a non-pilot would not be able to land the plane manually, but since it can be landed by computer, the ability to fly by hand isn't necessary.  And having a non-pilot land the plane does require that someone on the radio give him precise instructions on how to accomplish the landing; a non-pilot would not be able to figure out how to do it on his own (at least not in the time available) without some sort of related aviation experience.

A non-pilot might even be a safer choice than, say, a pilot with experience on small aircraft, because the pilot might be tempted to fly by hand, which would be very dangerous, whereas the non-pilot would be content to just press buttons and turn k***s as he is instructed.

In practice, of course, the chances of both pilots suddenly dying are very slim indeed, so this is mostly just an academic exercise.

Answer 4

Well, it looks fine in the movies. Unfortunately as a anti-terroist/anti-highjacker precaution the cockpit doors on all passenger aircraft are now locked.

Chances are that the aircraft would be on auto pilot so it would probably just fly around until it ran out of fuel, then crash.

Dont worry, the chances of it happening are far greater than those of you being killed by a lightning strike.

Answer 5

i'll land the sucker. may even do a touch and go or two.

Answer 6

Panic!

Answer 7

Cant control bring the plane in on automatic pilot and don't forgot  there is always flight attendants on board maybe they would have the knowledge , with the help of auto .

Thats a very good question , have a star

Answer 8

A PASSENGER land a plane MANUALLY!!! Are you nuts?! There'd be no one left in the plane if they tried.

Most people would have jumped by the time they heard the cabin crew going around asking if there was, "Anyone on board who knows how to land a plane,or is willing to try?"

Answer 9

They'd ask if a passenger onboard had any flight experience. It is very likly that on a large aircraft there would be a pilot on board. If no pilot then a passange of Cabin Crew would have to have a go.

Answer 10

i dunno what they'd do

but i doubt they'd do that

one of the cabin crew would probably do something

Answer 11

They'd make a comedy film out of it.

Seriously, someone could get quite a long way on autopilot but i don't think it can be landed that way.

Answer 12

thats where superman comes in!

Answer 13

OK, let me clear something up...

Automatic Landings!!! This is where the Autopilot Lands the aircraft by itself, all someone would have to do, is set the right speeds and headings, this could be instructed by someone on the ground, who was qualified to fly that aircraft. And once on the ground, ensure that the brakes are "on" and functioning efficiently, and reverse thrust is set.

If I were a passenger on this aircraft, then I wouldnt want someone to try a manual landing!

The person setting up for the plane doing an autoland, would probably be a flight attendant.

And lets face it, the possibility of both pilots dying, is fairly small.

Answer 14

Hello,

If the passenger had taken a few plane lessons, then they could possibly land it safely in successful circumstances. However, someone with no experience whatsoever is more than likely to crash it, as they are unfamiliar with the controls.

Simulator people may be able to keep it afloat better.

But, yes a passenger would certainly have to take over, they could all join each other at the Morg, UNLESS any of them had flying lessons.

Answer 15

well at that point i guess a passenger would probably try to land it themselves

Answer 16

Everybody dies. That's it.

look at the report of the Helios crash

Answer 17

You die...

no j/k...

I would imagine that someone would contact ground control and figure out what to do. that's if they didn't **** their pants first.

Answer 18

well if such a thing happens fist you will hear a PA if there is a pilot on board sited together with the passengers. If not that you should chose one of the flight attendant ( hopefully with some experience in Microsoft flight simulator). If all are totally inexperienced than you die..

Answer 19

Have you never seen Airplane?

Classic.

Answer 20

Airliner jets don't land the plane by themselves, that is not what autopilot is for. Autolanding, if it is equipped, has its limitations.  It can't be used if it the runway is not served by it nor if its not a straight in approach,etc. I think it would be very hard for even a qualified pilot to teach someone with little to no experience how to safely land a passenger airliner, much more, teaching them over the radio. It isn't Hollywood!

Answer 21

This has happend only once that i can recall - see Payne Stewart link attached as a result from slow decompression.

This scenairo depends on the aircraft, and how is was flying.

If the auto pilot was set up for a heading and altitude, the aircraft would continue flying on that heading and altitude until it ran out of fuel, where it would stall and crash. (The auto pilot would continue to try and increase nose ptich to maintain altitude until the trim hit its limit, causing the aircraft to enter a power of stall)

If the aircraft was on an IFR flight, and no responses from ATC inquires, and not changing flight path, then they would launch intercept aircraft to check it out, as they did with payne stewart.

If both pilots were to expire, but the passengers were still alive, chances are the aircarft would still crash, as the pax would either not be aware, or could not gain access into the cockpit due to new cockpit doors.

If the aircraft was not being flown on autopilot, it would enter a uncontrolled desent to the ground after some time and crash.

Answer 22

I'll run checklists and radios for John B.

I hate airline passenger travel, so very unlikely I'd be on board. The fractionals airline their pilots around, so maybe you'd have a frac pilot on pilot who'd be able to keep the thing right side up.

I had 2,900 hours before I touched a jet----the movies are not to be believed.

Answer 23

Well, let's say one pilot died, the other called a flight attendant in to the cockpit to help, and then later he/she died, leaving only the flight attendant:

The flight attendant would tell air traffic control (ATC) what happened, they would get somebody from that airline to instruct him/her on how to use the autopilot, how to increase/decrease power, lower the gear, flaps, etc.

On an airplane equipped with autoland, they would divert to an airport capable of autolands, and the flight attendant would be instructed on how to set up the autopilot and systems for landing. The airplane would come to a stop on the runway, everyone would get out, and they'd tow the airplane away. If the airplane wasn't capable of autoland, they would go to an airport with a big, long runway, and talk the flight attendant through a partially manual landing. The autopilot could still be used for most of it, but the last parts would need human intervention. It'd be rough, but I think everyone would walk away.

Now, let's say both pilots ate the fish at the exact same time, and didn't get the flight attendant up front before they both died:

ATC would most likely be the first to notice when that airplane didn't respond to communications. Now, depending on the airplane and autopilot setup, it would either continue along it's planned route, or just fly straight and level. If it continued along its planned route, ATC would most likely assume that there was a failure in the airplane's radios, and would just monitor it until something else seemd out of place, like when it never descended when it was nearing its destination. At this point, or when the airplane deviated from its planned route, they would scramble fighters to intercept it. The fighters would try to get a non-verbal response from the airplane (flash lights, rock wingtips, etc..) If that didn't work (which it wouldn't), they would attempt to get a look in the cockpit, and would then see the two dead pilots.

From here, the end wouldn't be pretty, and would depend on where the airplane was, how much fuel it had, etc. The best case scenario here would be that one of the flight attendants figured out what was wrong and found some way into the flight deck, which is nearly impossible. Even if he/she got into the flight deck, it's unlikely they would be able to re-establish communications with ATC in time to help.

But, lets be real, that's a near impossibility in and of itself.

Answer 24

Skydiving!!!! lol

Answer 25

if instructed howto use the autopilot then  the answer would be a survivable yes.

If a twin seated cessna... then have you ever seen the Krypton factor - some did, others didnt....!

Answer 26

They did this on mythbusters. Jamie and Adam both crashed trying to land the plane on their own. But, with a trained pilot on the other end of the radio, he was able to talk them both into successfully landing the aircraft with no prior experience.

So either way, if someone just gets on their cell phone/radio they can program the plane to land itself, or get talked into landing it.

Answer 27

I think the odds of one of the passengers on a large airliner being able to fly is pretty high.  Althought they'd probably never have flown a multi-engined jet, they'd at least have some chance of landing it.

I don't think the autopilot on most planes is good enough to actually land, just go from point a to point b, so it would probably get them onto final approach but the landing would be manual.

I am guessing that the most up to date modern plans *can* land on autopilot.

After doing some searching the net, it appears that an autopilot can do a lot of the stuff itself in good weather, but for example it wont lower the landing gear (which is quite important when landing) so you would need human intervention.

I would suggest that a civilian (most likely an air hostess or the navigator if the plane has one) would be able to do the necessary human intervention work if they were in contact with trained pilots on the ground, so the film "Airplane" isn't too far fetched in that respect.

I'm flying on holiday in four days, now you'd got me worried, I'm bringing my MS Flight Simulator manual on the plane with me ;-)

Answer 28

I could.  Course, I am a pilot...