Air traffic control
versus pilots. Medical emergency.
Captain is incapacitated. Request handling
for runway 10 landing. Coming up! Hey, 74 crew! Welcome back! If you don't know me,
my name is Kelsey. I'm a 747 pilot. My channel, 74 Gear,
is all about aviation. This is kind of a sad story. We have a captain who
actually ends up dying in flight. Let's get into it! Syracuse, American 550
is out of 15000 for 5000, medical emergency.
Captain is incapacitated. Request handling
for runway 10 landing. American 550, Syracuse
approach, roger. Altimeter is 30.25, runway 28 is also available if you'd
like. The winds are currently 090 at 3. We'll accept runway
28 for American 550. When you have time, fuel
remaining and souls on board please? 154 souls on board. American 550, roger.
Information Sierra is available at Syracuse.
Visibility is 10 miles and we're calling it 18000
broken on the ceiling. Should be clear and
beautiful morning. American 550 and we might need to widen
out just a little bit. We'll let you know. American 550 Roger. You can do it on your own or I
can vector you wherever you'd like. Keep in mind, the pilot
is up there by himself and it sounds like he's running the radios
and flying the plane at the same time. Now during cruise that's normal. You have a pilot lead
to go to the bathroom. You'll fly the plane
and run the radios. However, during the
landing phase of flight, there's a lot more things to do
and you're used to having someone that's doing certain roles
and you're doing certain roles. So in this case
he's running both and he's used to having a pilot
up there as all airline pilots are and that's why he keeps
saying things like "we". Like he does right here. American 550, and we might need to widen
out just a little bit. We'll let you know. This pilot is staying extremely
calm and very professional and doing all the things
that he's required to do. And that's why it's important to do
your training and develop good habits. When he checks in, you heard
him check into with the controller and say they had a
medical emergency on board and that's something that you're supposed to do
during your first check in with a new controller. After that you can say
your normal call sign but every time you check
in with a new controller, if you have something
like an emergency, it's important to check in with that
even though they're passed that information from the controller
ahead of them. It's just good to eliminate
any possible confusions. Listen when he checks in here. Medical emergency.
Captain is incapacitated. Request handling
for runway 10 landing. The next thing you'll notice
is the pilot asks for runway 10. One of the things that
we have as an airline pilot is that we can hit a
button inside of our plane and the plane will spit
out everything that we need as far as what we need
to land at that airport. The printout looks like this. It gives us everything like
the direction of the wind, the speed of the wind, the temperature. All the things relevant for
us to land at a given runway. When you're flying a small plane
you don't have anything typically that's going to
print off like this. So you're up there by
yourself in a small plane, you have to talk to or
listen to air traffic control and also listen to the current weather
that's going on at the airport there. Now in some cases
I've heard people say I'm going to go get the
weather, I'll be right back. It means typically they only have
one radio that they can use at a time and they can't do two radios. But that skill of listening to
one frequency and talking and listening to another
frequency at the same time will help you but when you're an
airline pilot it makes it nice to just hit a couple
buttons and get a printout. My assumption is that on
the current weather report it said that this was
the active runway. Runway 10 going this direction. But you heard the controller say
that runway 28 was also available. He's suggesting to the pilot
to go on to the other runway. Listen here. Runway 28 is also available if you'd
like. The winds are currently 090 at 3. Now as a pilot sometimes you
have to read between the lines of what air traffic control
is actually telling you. They're giving you a suggestion
of something that you can do but at the end of the
day you're responsible. They're not gonna say: "Hey! if I was you I would
really land on this other runway". They're not going to say that
because that puts them liable in a way. However he's saying hey this
other runway is also available that's reading
between the lines. It's something hey you should
be landing on this runway instead. It'll be better for you. Currently the pilot is probably
on this side of the airport. So for him to land on
runway 28 will be faster. If not he would have
to fly all the way back, past the airport in order
to land on runway 10. It's the exact same runway
but just opposite directions. Besides giving the pilot a
suggestion of what runway to land on, he also helps him out by
giving him the current weather. Something that we have to
have as a pilot before we land is we have to have the
current weather on the field. There was a video I did a while
back where the controller said: "Do you have the
current weather?" and the pilot was busy flying he
was dealing with an emergency and basically the air
traffic controller was saying: "Hey! Here's another
thing for you to do" However this controller
is doing the opposite. The controller is
just letting him know: "Hey! Here's the
current weather there". So now that's one less
thing that the pilot has to do even though he
already got that print out, the air traffic controller is doing
everything he can to take off and unload tasks that this
pilot will be responsible for. Listen when he says this. American 550 roger.
Information Sierra is available at Syracuse.
Visibility is 10 miles and we're calling it 18000
broken on the ceiling. Should be clear and
beautiful morning. By doing that and giving him the
current weather there at the airport, it alleviates one more task for this
pilot who's up there by himself flying. Let's see what's next. American 550,
contact tower 120.3 20.3, American 550. 550, runway 28. Expect the right turn
off of Foxtrot or Charlie. The ambulance will meet
you in the south de-ice pad. Alright, are they gonna have
a way to get into the airplane quickly or do we
need to go to a gate? They will have a way to
get in the airplane quickly. We have a big de-ice pad there. I can you progressives. Except the right turn,
it'll be at midfield F. Understood... as long as they have a way
to get on the airplane quickly. We need them to get
to the captain, thank you. Roger, sir. This pilot is doing a great job. He has not task saturated himself, he's got a big picture of everything
that's going on including what is important once they get on the ground. Obviously he's up there, he's
responsible for everybody on the plane, including the captain who
is unconscious at this time and he's asking the controller: "Are you sure you're going
to be able to get to the captain if we go to this
de-ice pad here" Listen. All right, are they gonna have a
way to get into the airplane quickly or do we need to go to a gate? He's questioning him because
the de-ice pad is where pilots go for obviously, to
de-ice an aircraft. And what's typically
over there is nothing. And there's nothing over there because
what we use it for during wintertime is for trucks to go around and
spray the de-ice fluid all over the planes. Any pilot that has been
flying for a long time knows that if they go into a remote
area they have to get air stairs. These air stairs are usually
have a truck underneath them and they're driven up to the plane
so people can get on and off the plane. Any pilot who's been flying for a
while knows that sometimes it could take 20 or 30 minutes for air
stairs to get hooked up. People don't do it very often. I've been there and watched
somebody pull up five or six times trying to get these stairs
lined up with the plane and he's also thinking about: "Hey! If that's the case and you guys are
gonna take the captain out on a stretcher, now you're on
a flight of stairs" versus being on a jet bridge, the pilot would be able to
come right off on a stretcher and be wheeled more quickly
and get emergency care. The controller is saying plan
to go to the south de-ice pad. And if you're looking at this
chart here, you might be thinking: Where is that? Luckily with these iPads you have a more
detailed map option that you can look at. Like this one. And when you zoom in here, you can
see the south the ice pad is right here. Next to the gates. So he's flying the
plane, working the radios and thinking about everything that's
going to be responsible afterwards. That's what's called
being ahead of your aircraft and so what he's thinking is: "Okay, well that's the south de-ice
pad and the gates are right next to it so wouldn't another 10 or
15 seconds getting to a gate where people are used to being
able to get on and get off quickly? Medical personnel aren't
going up and down steps. Everything can move a lot
faster is what he's thinking. I'm guessing. But he's thinking this is
going to make it more efficient. So he's being ahead of his aircraft
with this something that takes experience but it makes you really good as a
pilot when you're seeing everything that's coming next. And now air traffic control is looking
and thinking the exact same thing. They're telling them to park
here. Why not just take them here? Which is going to
cause the controller think: Hmm, maybe that would be a
better option to go to the gate. Watch what happens next. Airport Command, do you guys
have a way of getting into the cockpit expeditiously or does the
aircraft need to go to a gate? Roger, thank you for the update. American 550, you will
be going to a gate, sir. It's gonna be gate 6. I'll give you
quick progressives as soon as you land. Okay we'll expect
gate 6, American 550. Now had the pilot not questioned
ATC about going to the south de-ice pad and had he gotten overloaded
with everything that was going on, it would have probably added time
to the pilot getting off the aircraft. But by double checking
twice he asked him, are you sure because we
need to get somebody up there? It caused a
controller to go hmm. Maybe I should double check and even though it's missing some of
the radio transmission on the other side, that's the controller asking
the people on the ground: Are you sure that we can
get them up there quickly? And when he realizes that it's
not going to happen very fast, he says yeah, we're going
to send you to the gates and he says he's going
to give him a progressive. Listen to this. American 550, you will
be going to a gate, sir. It's going to be gate 6. I'll give you a
quick progressives as soon as you land. A progressive is something that
you will get if you're new to the airport, you can ask the
controllers for progressive. You typically don't
hear airline pilots do it because there's two people. One person who's taxing the plane
and one person who's looking on the chart to figure out exactly what
the best way to get there is. However you can
always, if you're lost, it's better to ask hey
can I get a progressive. And what that is is
it's basically saying Air traffic control, you're
going to be my GPS and you're going to give me a
turn by turn of where I need to go, go left here okay. Next right you're
going to make a right. They'll give you those
directions of how you need to go in order to get somewhere. You can do it. Airline pilots
typically don't do it but if you ask for it
they can give it to you if they're not really busy. So originally the controller wanted
to go here in the south de-ice pad but now they're gonna
park right next to it at gate 6. And it's open. I don't think there was any bad
intentions from the controller here. I think he was simply thinking: "Hey, there's an open area so we
can get them there quickly parked and get somebody on the plane". But when the pilot asked him two
times it made him question and think is this really the best plan? The pilot was saying that twice to
make him read between the lines. Earlier, I talked about how air traffic
control suggesting something to you as a pilot, is them
suggesting to do something and this is kind of the way the pilots will
suggest something to air traffic control. Ask them two times: Are you sure
that's the best way? Is that really what we
should be doing here? And that made the controller query and
ask these guys that were on the ground, the medical personnel, "Hey, can we get this all done quickly
or would it be better to go to the gate?" Now there's obviously
some missing audio there of what air traffic control was
hearing on the other side but he obviously learned it'd
be better to get into the gate. Now sadly this pilot was
younger. he was only 57 and he did pass
away during this flight. But this pilot did everything
he could to get him to the gate as quickly as possible and I'm sure
the captain would have been proud. Delta 2953, runway 10L DD, turn
left heading 360, cleared for take-off. Turn left, left turn to 3... 360 that was? Delta 2953 affirmative, turn left
heading 360, cleared for take-off. Delta 2953, you are
turning the wrong way. You need to be
departing the other way. Turning it around. Just verify, cleared
for take-off, Delta 2953. Delta 2953, runway 10L at DD, turn
left heading 360, cleared for take-off. 360, on the roll, Delta
2953, sorry about that. That is really
terrible audio and no, it doesn't typically sound
as bad as it sounds there. In our headsets when we're
talking with air traffic control. Now I have heard about this
happening for years I'd heard about people when they get into
the simulator, when they're new, when they're doing training, they get overloaded, task saturated. Essentially the opposite of the pilot
earlier that was coming in to Syracuse. It's the opposite of that. And I've heard of a guy who
during a simulator session lined up on the runway
the wrong direction. Now the simulator
instructor thought hmm, all right, let's see what
happens if I clear them for takeoff and so this pilot
lined up the wrong way facing a bunch of
grass and bushes. There's no runway and these
simulators are very accurate. So he goes, okay yeah
you're cleared for takeoff. And they're just curious
to see what he did and he just added full power and throw into a bunch of
bushes and crashed in the sim. They have from here going forward
which is plenty of takeoff distance. You can see here the total
runway length is 13,000 feet. Now I've flown in and
out of Chicago for years. It is very common to get an
intersection takeoff on that runway going both directions and taking off from
DD is very, very normal. What's not normal is
facing this direction. Obviously if they tried
to take off this direction, it would have been
a massive problem. Now in all my years, I had heard
about people doing that in the sim but I'd never seen
it done in real life. And it's funny is that
just a few months ago, I saw someone actually
do this exact thing in real life at a
different airport though. It was during, I think November
December, something like that and we were
coming out of Newark. And we had this
massive line of people. It was during a big push. A push is when all the planes are
kind of going out at the same time. It's our rush hour. Anyways during this big push, I was watching a
guy from a airline, come out onto the runway and
face 100% the wrong direction. And I thought: "No way!" and then he just spun
it all the way around but it was nighttime. So air traffic
control didn't see but all the planes that were there were
probably thinking the same thing that I was because the distance that way
was even a lot less than this. There was nothing there. It was right at the towards the very
beginning of the runway so I was thinking what were you looking at? And I don't know if it was the
captain or it was the first officer but it was... the direction it would have
been on the captain's side that there was no more
runway there so if it was the captain that
would really surprise me. Either way, air traffic
control didn't see it but I have seen it happen in real life
where a plane line up the wrong way and that they were able to spin
around and take off no problem. The one thing that this pilot did that I
really liked though was this part right here. Just verify, cleared
for take-off, Delta 2953. These pilots know
they messed up. There's no doubt about it. They know everybody in line
is watching them messed up. Everybody knows
that it was a mess up. But instead of taking
something that was bad and possibly making
it significantly worse, this pilot chose to verify that
they were clear for takeoff. Spinning and lining up on
the runway the wrong direction okay that's bad.
It's embarrassing but you're not going to
get in any trouble for that. Taking off without a
runway clearance for takeoff, you're going to get in
a lot of trouble for that. And if you add those two together,
it's going to be very embarrassing. So by this pilot double
checking with air traffic control that they are
cleared for takeoff before taking off, that was a very smart, very responsible
decision for this pilot to make. And then you hear
him say this here. 360, on the roll, Delta
2953, sorry about that. That's a pilot's way to let
air traffic control know that they're actually
moving going forward. And just like any child,
if you get in trouble, the first thing you want
to do is get out of there. If you enjoyed this video, you're
going to love one of these two up here. I look forward to
hearing from you. Until then, keep the blue side up!
