A passenger with no experience flying successfully landed a small plane at Humberside Airport in England after the pilot fell seriously ill.
The pilot collapsed at the controls while flying the aircraft, which departed from Santoft Airfield located about 25 miles away. The only other passenger on the plane called police, fire and ambulance crews, the BBC reported. Two flying instructors were also alerted of the emergency, and called the passenger to provide step-by-step instructions on how to land the craft.
One of the instructors, named Roy Murray, told the BBC that the passenger, who'd never operated an aircraft before, did a "remarkable job" of safely bringing the plane down at Humberside Airport.
"He made quite a good landing, actually," Murray, who works at the airport's flying school, said. "He didn't know the layout of the airplane, he didn't have lights on, so he was absolutely flying blind as well...he'd never flown an airplane before."
Murray said his main concern was keeping the passenger cool in the midst of the stressful situation.
"The last thing you want to do is panic," he told the BBC, "then all sorts of things can happen."
After three tries, the plane landed safely on the airport's runway. Murray said that the instructors and airport officials gathered in the control room whooped and cheered with relief once the passenger announced the plane had touched down.
"It's a fantastic feeling knowing I have achieved something, and probably saved somebody's life," he continued. "I think without any sort of talk-down he would have just gone into the ground and that would have been the end of it."
Witness Stuart Sykes told the BBC he watched the plane land at around 7:50 p.m. local time.
"It came down with a bump, a bump, a bump, hit the front end down, I heard some crashing and it's come to a halt," Sykes said. "There were a few sparks and three or four crashes - that must have been the propeller hitting the floor. Then it uprighted again and it came to a stop."
Some roads around the airport were temporarily closed off while the plane landed, but they've since been reopened. The pilot's status of health has not yet been publicized.
