BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – There was drama in the sky over Bakersfield Friday afternoon as a small plane — its pilot in distress — was diverted to Meadows Field and successfully landed by its one and only passenger.
The Beech C90-B King Air — a twin-engine turboprop — was headed from Henderson, Nevada, to Monterey when the unidentified pilot suddenly lost consciousness, leaving the lone passenger — a non-pilot — to land the plane himself.
It happened at around 1 p.m. Friday. The pilot experienced some kind of medical event and passed out. The unidentified passenger was forced to take the controls.
Coached from the ground by experienced pilots — at this point we don’t know who or from what vantage point — the passenger turned back toward Bakersfield, which the plane had apparently already passed on the way to its Northern California destination.
One of the first orders of business, once the plane was successfully turned around — was getting the landing gear down. The passenger flying the plane understandably didn’t know how to do that.
But the coaching was good, as Kern County Airports Director Ron Brewster described it.
“I would say that the passenger did an outstanding job getting the aircraft down safely,” he said. “He was a passenger with knowledge but no pilot’s certificate. … The pilot was transported to the hospital and we don’t have the disposition (of his condition) as of yet.”
Brewster couldn’t talk on camera or in-person because at the time he was standing near the King Air, parked on the end of the Meadows Field tarmac, while the plane was being evaluated for possible damage. It overshot the runway, but from what Brewster could tell, there was no damage to the aircraft.
At this point, everyone’s concern is with the pilot, who was seen being given urgent and aggressive chest compressions by a paramedic as the pilot was being wheeled from the plane to a waiting ambulance.
But it was not the nightmare it might have been.
“I wouldn’t call it a nightmare,” Brewster said. “I would call it an adventure movie with an excellent, excellent happy ending.”
