Only three people were on board, the pilot and two passengers, the F.A.A. said. Their names were not released…reports Asian Lite News
A passenger without any flying experience safely landed a private plane on Tuesday at a Florida airport after the pilot had a medical issue, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane, a single-engine Cessna 208, landed around 12:30 p.m. at Palm Beach International Airport, the F.A.A. said. The aircraft had departed from Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas an hour and a half earlier, according to Flight Aware, a flight tracking website, a report in the New York Times stated.
Only three people were on board, the pilot and two passengers, the F.A.A. said. Their names were not released.
At noon, about an hour into the flight from the Bahamas , the pilot said he wasn’t feeling well and slumped against the controls, according to an F.A.A. blog post. The plane went into a nosedive and a sharp turn, forcing one of the passengers to take over during the flight and stabilize the plane.
“I’ve got a serious situation here,” the passenger said to a controller at a tower in Fort Pierce, Fla., according to audio archived on LiveATC.net. “My pilot has gone incoherent, and I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”
The passenger also said that he did not know where the plane was.
“I see the coast of Florida in front of me, and I have no idea,” said the passenger, who was also struggling to turn on the navigation system.
During a 10-minute exchange, the air traffic controller, Christopher Flores, guided the passenger, then about 20 miles east of Boca Raton, telling him to hold the wings level, follow the coastline and attempt to slowly descend. Air traffic control at Palm Beach International Airport took over after that.
Robert Morgan, an experienced air-traffic controller and flight instructor, said in an interview released by the F.A.A. that he had never flown a Cessna 208 aircraft before. A co-worker printed out images of the plane’s cockpit for him to consult. Mr. Morgan instructed the passenger on how to land and stop the plane.
Morgan said, “I knew the plane was flying like any other plane, I just knew I had to keep him calm, point him to the runway and tell him how to reduce the power so he could descend to land,” Morgan said.
The passenger achieved an awesome feat as becoming a private pilot with a single-engine plane requires at least 40 hours of flight time, including at least 10 hours of solo flying and multiple takeoffs and landings.
After the emergency landing, one patient was transported to an area hospital. passengers were not injured, the F.A.A. said.
The book has also helped Puri achieve her dream of spreading information on women pilot’s in India…writes Vishnu Makhijani
“Revolution does not come overnight and social revolution takes time to come. Social and logistics aspects also take time,” the Supreme Court had observed on International Womens Day (March 8), noting that the mindset has changed with induction of women officers in the armed forces and promising to assess the possibility of allocating more seats to women candidates in National Defence Academy (NDA), after deliberating the implications of this in the long term.
The mindset in India’s civil aviation sector, however, began to change way back in the 1930 and has resulted in a situation today where there are 2,764 women among the country’s 17,726 registered commercial pilots. What this also means is that while only around 5 per cent of all pilots globally are women, their number in India is a whopping 15 per cent and twice the number compared to most Western countries, including the US and Australia.
“The roadmap ahead is already flying high, more and more women are joining this profession,” Captain Manisha M. Puri, who has flown both Boeings and Airbuses for Air India, told in an interview of her book, “From Sarees To Stripes – True Stories of Commercial Women Pilots in India” (Amaryllis) that details the extraordinary challenges that women have faced to be where they are today.
“Society is accepting, families are accepting, even the Air Force has opened their doors for women, inducting them as fighter pilots, which was not the case in our times. Even though it is conquering one mile at a time, it has already started to be noticed, appreciated and rewarded. The sky ahead is blue and we are soaring higher and higher each day,” Puri added.
She clocked more than 27 years of flying before taking voluntary retirement, is an active member of the Indian Women Pilots’ Association and is Secretary of the International Women Pilots Organisation, ‘The Nine-Nines Inc’ India chapter. Having being honoured at Amelia Earhart’s birthplace at Atchison, Kansas, with a plaque bearing her name engraved in the International Forest of Friendship, along with some other Indian aviators, she today focuses on sharing some of life’s real challenges as a motivator and mentor in the ‘Nai Disha’ NGO where she mingles with children who give meaning to her life and help them move forward to reach their goals and dreams.
The book has also helped Puri achieve her dream of spreading information on women pilot’s in India.
“I would often meet people within or outside the aviation circuit who were not aware of the fact that women in India had been flying aircraft since the (19) 30s. This inspired me to write this book bringing the history of women pilots, their stories, struggles and determination that made them reach the skies in spite of all difficulties that they faced.
“It was also my way of thanking my seniors, paying tribute to the first few women pilots who broke the glass ceiling making way for many like me,” Puri explained.
These pioneering women pilots have had to overcome astounding challenges and paved the way for women of today and tomorrow to follow their dreams, and so, their inspiring stories must be read by everyone. The book weaves together a narrative of India’s aviation history, behind-the-scenes drama and the absolute conviction with which these gutsy women fought hard against all odds to fulfil their dreams.
These women boast several firsts in the industry, from being hired as pilots to fly for Indian Airlines, the first in India to induct women pilots as early as in 1966, paving the way for many more in the subsequent years with Air India. They not only flew state-of-the-art aircraft across continents but also created history by operating all-women crew flights over some of the most challenging navigational routes, including the Polar route.
In fact, history was created in January 2021 when an all-women crew flew Air India’s longest direct flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru, covering a distance of 16,000 km and saving 10 tonnes of fuel by flying over the North Pole.
Considerable research went into writing the book, starting with Capt Sarla Thukral, India’s first woman pilot.
“I decided to meet in person all the women pilots and talk to them to gather all that I wanted to write about. Capt Sarla Thukral was 93 years old when I met her and talked to her about my passion to write a book on the stories of the daring women who entered the so-called male dominated profession. She gave me her diary/other records which she had kept as valuable items.
“Her passion for flying lasted till she lived. Today she is no more but my promise to her about the book on women pilots is a reality. People are reading and learning about these amazing women who worked silently with utmost dedication to reach the skies,” she added.
Detailing the evolution of India’s civil aviation sector, Puri said the common factor “that still remains in every decade is the passion to fly and overcome any challenge whatsoever… It is with pride that we say that the earlier women proved that it is the performance rather than gender that is needed for this profession”.
“Women have broken all records be it the longest route, flying the Poles, fastest in speed and first all women flight in 1985. Women have faced all emergencies be it single engine, hydraulic failure, emergency with passengers or emergency landings, they have performed and made a mark and impact all around.
“Having family – husband, children, parents – they have not left this highly stressed job but juggled in their own way, each one of them,” Puri added with justifiable pride.
She concluded on a philosophical note.
“It is a profession that needs a lot of dedication, focus, hard work and discipline but once you are in it, it gives tremendous satisfaction.
“It’s a profession where your office is in the sky, no two days are the same even on the same airfield and you continue to face challenges each day. The satisfaction is that this is the only profession where once you leave the cockpit, your work is complete for the day!”
“I remember when I had to complete my assignments I used to study even under the street lights when there were power cuts. I then topped in my college and then my parents also felt that I needed to get enrolled for the pilot course to achieve my goals…Zoya interacts with Anand Singh.
Captain Zoya Aggarwal is an admiring name for all young girls in the country since she had her first successful fly from North Pole with whole women team with her in the beginning of 2021, through which she crossed another milestone by commanding an all-women team to pilot Air India’s longest non-stop commercial flight from US’s San Francisco to India’s Bengaluru, says that the main motto of her life is to make an “impact” on the lives of lakhs of youths to dream big.
The United Nations has chosen Aggarwal as its Spokesperson for Generation Equality. On International Youth Day, the UN also featured India and Air India to spread awareness amongst the youth. This is a big moment for India as the UN has featured for the first time a pilot from Air India on its global platform. This is the first time ever that UN women has kicked off world youth day with India.
In an interview on the International Youth Day, Aggarwal, who has been featured by the UN said, “I was just eight years old when I saw an aeroplane flying while sitting on the terrace of my house. And there and then I decided to fly a plane and to touch the stars.”
She said that as a kid, she started preparing to fulfil her dreams. Agarwal said that she had to face a lot of resistance as she came from a very humble and conservative family. “But for me it was possible,” she said, adding, “I believed in myself and went for my goal and told my parents, eventually to become a pilot.”
She said that as she was the only child of her parents, her mother was in tears while her father was nervous, and then he asked her to get admission in college thinking that she will forget about her dream to be a pilot. She said that she went to St Stephen’s in Delhi and then completed her Science degree and side by side also got herself enrolled for the aviation classes in the remaining days time.
“And I needed a prove that I can achieve my goal and of course I needed the support of my parents, without whom I couldn’t have done that. I also had a piggy bank in which I have been saving for last 17 years which I contributed for enrolling into the aviation classes,” she said.
“I remember when I had to complete my assignments I used to study even under the street lights when there were power cuts. I then topped in my college and then my parents also felt that I needed to get enrolled for the pilot course to achieve my goals.
“I was fortunate that my parents agreed and then took a loan. And I was the fifth girl to fly in Air India in 2004. At that point of time to get into Air India was very tough. For seven vacancies there were over 3,000 applicants with more experience than me. But despite the things that were against me I was lucky to get in,” she said.
“My father also had a heart attack, just three days before my exam of Air India. He was in tears in the ICU before I was going for the exam and he was upset because I was going without him. He was nervous that how tough it was for children to compete at such an early age,” she recalled.
She said that her first flight was from Delhi to Dubai. Agarwal in 2013 was the youngest woman to fly the Boeing 777 in the world. “In 2021 I became the first ever woman captain to fly over the north pole with an all women crew, creating world history. That flight created a number of records and also put India on the world map,” she said.
Agarwal was among the first few pilots and cabin crews to volunteer for the Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate Indian nationals from all across the world in view of the Covid pandemic. “After the Covid pandemic became serious in the US, I volunteered, it was a call of duty. Our first Vande Bharat flight from the US’s San Francisco to India’s Mumbai with all Indian consulate staff was on Mother’s Day. I was away from my mother but I was fortunate to reunite hundreds of families with their mothers,” she said.
“And when our flight landed in Mumbai the passengers cheered for me and even the people at the airport wearing their face shields were applauding for us with tears in their eyes,” she recalled. “It was an opportunity to rise to the occasion and that was the inspiration as these memories will go to our graves with us,” Agarwal said.
And the message through my entire journey is that if a girl from a humble background can do this, it will inspire lakhs of youths whether men or women to dream big in their lives, she said. She added that she keeps on getting letters and DMs on Instagram where the people say that they had lost hope but after coming to know of my story they want to do something. “There must be a reason why people are following me. There must a reason that God has given me an opportunity to serve mankind. And then I got to the United Nations, which is like my another dream coming true, as I always wanted to work for it as it gives a wide platform to inspire people.
“My goal in life is to make an impact on the lives of the people and the UN is the best place where I can do that meaningfully,” she added.
