Can You Really Land a Plane With No Experience?

Photo by Nick Morales on Unsplash

It’s a movie trope. The pilot gets killed by the bad guys and our hero, who has never flown a plane before, successfully lands the plane. Usually with help from ATC.

Yesterday, it actually happened at Palm Beach in Florida. The pilot became abruptly incoherent and their passenger landed the plane safely.

So, apparently it is feasible, but let’s look at some caveats.

What Kind of Plane Was It?

First of all, it was not an airliner. It wasn’t even a multiple engine plane.

The plane involved in the incident, per CBS, was a Cessna 208, also known as a Caravan. This is a utility plane designed by Cessna that, in its passenger configuration, can seat as many as 9 passengers. In this case, there seem to have only been two people on board…the pilot and one passenger. (The actual configuration of the plane is unknown).

(The plane pictured above is the larger version, the Grand Caravan).

So, this is a single engine, turboprop plane. While not as easy as some of the smaller Cessnas or the elusive Ercoupe, the 208 is used as a flight trainer. This review by a pilot says it “lands easily.”

Now, that doesn’t mean that you and I could just get in a Cessna 208 cockpit and fly it. This…