The air Traffic Controller on duty in the air traffic control tower suddenly lost communication with a small twin engine aircraft.A moment later the tower landline rang and was answered by one of the employees.
The passenger riding with the pilot who lost communications was on a mobile phone.
He yelled, "Mayday, mayday! The pilot had an instant and fatal heart attack. I grabbed his phone out of his pocket and he had told me before we took off he had the tower on his speed dial memory. I am flying upside down at 18,000 feet and traveling at 180 mph. Mayday, mayday!"
The employee in the tower immediately put him on speaker phone
Calm down, we acknowledge you and we'll guide you down after a few questions. The first thing is not to panic. Remain calm!"
He began his series of questions:
Tower: "How do you know you are traveling at 18,000 feet?"
Aircraft: "I can see that it reads 18,000 feet on the altimeter dial in
front of me."
Tower: "Okay, that's good, remain calm. How do you know you're traveling at 180 mph?"
Aircraft: "I can see that it reads 180 mph on the airspeed dial in front of me."
Tower: "Okay, this is great so far, but it's heavily overcast. So how you know you're flying upside down?"
Aircraft: "The sh*t in my pants is running out of my shirt collar."
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Aircraft emergency story - how to tell if you're inverted
- andygolfer
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Aircraft emergency story - how to tell if you're inverted
Andygolfer (or at least I was once), now just plane crazy
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Proud winner of 2019 Air-Britain photo competition!
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please support our photo competitions by entering and/or voting!
Proud winner of 2019 Air-Britain photo competition!
co-owner of UK Light Aviation Enthusiasts google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/uklae
and Stansted Aviation Enthusiasts google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/stnae
my photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125470545@N07/
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