Brave 80-Year-Old Woman Lands Plane After Pilot Husband Dies While Mid-Air

Seriously brave.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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An 80-year-old woman in Wisconsin safely landed a small plane she was traveling in with her husband when he passed out midflight at the controls. According to local authorities, unfortunately her husband later died at after being brought to a hospital.

The unidentified couple was traveling in a twin-engine Cessna on Monday when the 81-year-old pilot passed out from a pre-existing medical condition. His wife, who, according to law enforcement, had "very little experience flying an aircraft," radioed for help before being forced to make an emergency landing when the plane ran out of fuel and an engine failed.

Law enforcement sent a local pilot into another aircraft to coach the woman into landing the plane, according to Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel. "We got him up into an aircraft and he felt it was easier for him to give her instructions, for him to determine for instance, her speed in the air and to instruct how to successfully land that aircraft." Witnesses say the landing was "touch and go" on the way down.

"It was a very difficult situation with her husband unconscious next to her," Vogel told a local news station, "it took a lot to collect her thoughts and get that thing landed."

[via New York Daily News]

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