BREAKING: MSNBC reporting Continental Airlines

pilot dies in flight. Landing in Newark, NJ.

I presume he loved his job and died doing what he loved doing. RIP whoever you are.

Oh well.

http://www.courts.state.mn.us/?page=550

The Coleman/Franklin Page: http://www.mncourts.gov/?page=3409

But, it's probably not the place to be as we'll probably hear about it from the media before anything shows up there. Here is the link to WCCO: http://wcco.com/

:banghead:

I would assume they are trained for this.

that's something that's a lot harder to do on one's own.

however, only one person actually controls the airplane at a time....half of the time it's the copilot.

In an emergency (e.g., the other crewmember dies), the remaining pilot is capable of operating the aircraft. Just a little more work.

Yes they are trained for it, but...

The cockpit is much easier handled by a team, especially upon landing. Having to handle such an emergency, and then have to do it alone, and then as the less experience officer.....

The guy better get employee of the month so to speak.

and she/he is fully qualified on the aircraft, with at least a commercial pilot license (more likely an airline transport pilot license).

The only person in danger in this situation is the crewmember that died.

alot of experience. No. They've been taking in some extremely low experienced people lately (for the right seat). I'm not saying the guys a genius or anything. But he did have his hands full.

The issue you refer to are the regional carriers, where newer pilots tend to go to build up the needed flying time to apply to the majors. I rarely (if ever, any more) fly with copilots that have less than several thousand hours of experience.

open the door to lay the pilot down for medical assesment.

IT was sudden as the copilot I'd inform the flight attendants by phone and then wait till all the passengers were off then call in the ambulance to remove the body.

And I'm sure the copilot followed it.

So...not to give anything away but, they wouldn't inform the passengers unless they had to open the door.

being diverted there. IF they had been diverted, probably would have had to announce it. However, I'm sure the passengers are already aware of it if we are. At any rate, an awful thing.

I would bet that through the entire flight, from the time the captain died until the time the plane was safely at the gate, every time the copilot had to make an announcement on the intercom, he prefaced his comments with "on behalf of the captain." That's happened a lot to me, and you don't really think anything about it--the captain's busy flying the plane, the copilot gets on and talks to the passengers. The captain sounds like Rick Moranis, let the copilot talk to the passengers. The copilot sounds like Mercedes Ruehl...kick the captain's ass if he even thinks about talking to the passengers! Most likely the passengers didn't know the captain died until it made the news--AFTER the plane landed!

:hide: