Darren Harrison has opened up about the harrowing experience he went through when he had to land a plane after the pilot passed out.
In an appearance on Today, Harrison reflected on how he was able to successfully land the plane despite having no aviation experience. “I knew it was a life or death situation, either you do what you have to do to control the situation or you die,” said Harrison, who was able to set down the single-engine craft at Palm Beach International Airport after the pilot went “incoherent.”
Harrison said he frequently imagined a “nightmare” scenario in which a pilot of a small plane suffers from health issues in the middle of the flight. “I’ve thought about it many times,” he said. The pilot told Darren and his fellow passenger that he wasn’t “feeling right” and was “fuzzy,” and by the time Harrison asked what to do, he had already passed out. It was at this point Darren decided to take action, and when he got to the cockpit he saw the plane had gone into a nose-dive “at a very fast rate.”
“All I saw when I came up to the front was water out the right window,” he continued. “And I knew it was coming quick. … At that point, I knew if I didn’t react, that we would die.” He instinctively reached over the pilot’s body and began to “pull back on the stick and turn.” Asked how he knew what to do, he admitted it was “just common sense.” He feared if he “yanked” on the flight controls the plane could stall, or even worse “rip the wings off the airplane.” He added that the “scariest part” came before he made contact with ground control about the situation.
Initially, Harrison discovered the wire for the pilot’s headset wasn’t plugged in, so he asked for another set and was able to contact air traffic control. Through that crew’s guidance, he was able to safely land the small plane.
“Surprisingly I felt so comfortable with it, I radioed to the guy, I said, ‘Hey I’m feeling pretty confident in the brakes and everything, do you guys want me to turn off the runway so I can clear this thing out?’” he recalled. When it all came to a successful conclusion, he admitted he “said the biggest prayer I’ve ever said in my life.” Darren added that the pilot is expected to leave the hospital this week.
Watch Harrison open up about the experience above.
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