A woman with no formal pilot training landed a small plane in Bakersfield, California, after her pilot husband suffered a heart attack during a flight on Friday, Oct. 4, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Eliot Alper, 78, was flying a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 from Henderson, Nev., to Monterey, Calif., when he had a medical emergency with his wife and sole passenger, Yvonne Kinane-Wells, 69, Los Angeles Times reported. Alper, who married Kinane-Wells in February, was rushed to hospital where he later died, his estate office confirmed. Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, October 7.
During the incident, Kinane-Wells, a real estate agent, received instructions from air traffic control on how to fly the aircraft, according to an audio recording he obtained Inside Edition. In the footage, an air traffic controller instructed Kinane-Wells on altitude and told her to change course to land at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield.
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Eliot Alper.
In additional PEOPLE audio obtained by LiveATC.net, controllers and pilots monitoring the aircraft are recorded making sure Kinane-Wells’ radio is clear for emergency communications. “A passenger in the cockpit trying to figure out how to fly,” says one controller of Kinane-Wells and the disabled pilot’s notes.
She successfully landed the plane at 13:40. Then, after landing, emergency vehicles chased the plane down the 11,000-foot runway until Kinane-Wells was able to stop the plane.
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Ron Brewster, director of airports for Kern County, told Inside Edition that as far as he knows this incident is “unprecedented,” adding that he’s “never seen it in [his] entire career.”
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating.
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Representatives of the FAA and NTSB did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Wednesday.
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Source: HIS Education