Flight Attendant Helps Land Plane

Okay.. at first this sounds FUNNY! Co-Pilot has a nervous breakdown while crossing the pond and the flight attendant helps to remove the co-pilot from the cockpit, and then the FA assists the captain for an approach and landing into Dublin. Hell... that sounds like a bad movie plot as well... If it wasn’t actually true.

This all happened on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to London in January. Not only did the poor chap have to be removed from the flight deck, but he had to be sedated by two doctors on board. My question is this, what caused the breakdown? Was it that he was just one of those people who was due to have one? Was it because he had chronic fatigue from months or years of poor schedules? We may very well never know, but ask yourself this, at 58 years of age putting up with the schedules most airlines, especially commuter airlines dole out, would you be prone to “loosing it”? Granted, most of us would not loose it in the cockpit, but everyone has their breaking point.

Regardless of the type of flying you do, ask yourself this: What would you do if someone in the cockpit became a safety hazard? You should have a plan of action if you are flying alone, with a crew on a part 91, part 135 and part 121 flight. During certain simulator training sessions it is not uncommon to run through an incapacitated crew member scenario, but I have not heard or witnessed anyone running through an out-of-control crew member scenario. You can read more about the Air Canada flight here.