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When an Air Canada flight attendant helped land a plane!

        Toronto: An Air Canada flight attendant helped land a plane after the co-pilot suffered an emotional breakdown over the Atlantic Ocean, according to Ireland's Air Accident Investigation Unit. The Boeing 767 jet carrying 146 passengers and nine crewmembers was headed from Toronto to London's Heathrow Airport on 28 January 2008, when the co-pilot suffered an emotional breakdown. The Flight AC848's captain, whose pilot position is also known as 'commander', asked the senior cabin supervisor to take the co-pilot away from the controls, leaving the flight attendant, who had a commercial pilot's licence, to assist in a landing. The plane was diverted to Shannon Airport, about 200 kilometres southwest of Dublin. "The commander requested that the flight attendant occupy the right-hand (first officer's) seat for the remainder of the flight to assist as necessary," said the report. "The flight attendant provided useful assistance to the commander, who remarked in a statement to the investigation that she was 'not out of place' while occupying the right-hand seat," the report added. The report also said that the co-pilot was in a "confused and disoriented state," became "belligerent" and had to be removed from the cockpit. The co-pilot was listed as having "6,581 hours in total flying time, of which 3,173 hours were on the Boeing 767." "While this was an unfortunate incident, we are pleased this report highly praises the actions of our crew," globeandmail.com quoted Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said Wednesday. "It found safety was never compromised and goes even further by noting the [Irish investigation] had no recommendations to make on how the situation could have been better handled," he added.
-Nov 20, 2008