Hat tip to the Fly With Blake blog for posting the link to this video recording the radar track and ATC communications from Doug White – the co-pilot who took control of a King Air 200 after the pilot died 10 minutes into the flight. White managed to safely land the plane despite the fact that he was a private pilot with about 230 hours of flight time in single-engine Cessna 172s and he hadn’t been flying much since he obtained his private pilot license back in 1991 (However, in January he had resumed flying and had logged 150 hours).
Although the video is almost 40 minutes long, its definitely a good watch of what one pilot did when thrust into an unusual situation.
I've flown the King Air so I'm familiar with it's apparent complexity. I can only imagine the confusion that this guy felt in the cockpit… yet he maintained composure and did a great job. Thanks for posting the video.
The same thing happened in Sydney a few months ago. This time, the pilot fell unconscious (in a King Air) and left control to a 300 hour pilot: http://fat.ly/u