Doug White – pilot

Doug White, 56, managed to land a small plane at Southwest Florida International Airport after the pilot died in mid-flight. Five people, including the pilot, were on board the Beechcraft King Air two-engine turboprop plane. Doug was on the plane with his wife Terry and their two daughters.

Air traffic controllers gave instructions to White, initially telling his how to disengage the autopilot. The controller then called a friend familiar with the King Air plane to talk White through landing procedure.

White has 20 years of flight experience but he’s only licensed for single-engine planes not the larger King Air two-engine planes. Steve Wallace, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers in Miami said: “We’ve had situations where passengers land airplanes before, but this is the first time I actually heard a controller actually tell the passenger to push this button and turn this knob.”

A statement explains further: “When the friend had gotten out his flight checklists, manuals and cockpit layout sheets, he was able to issue instructions through the controller to another controller, who then relayed that information to the passenger flying the plane.”

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