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Florida, Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009: DOUG BROWN, passenger, with family on board

Pilot dies, passenger lands King Air


One year anniversary


King Air N559DW EPILOGUE (The Rest of The Story) Doug White

i stumbled upon these DOUG BROWN videos a few days ago. ^^^
i wondered why i did not remember this 2009 event.

2009 was a busy year. national, world, personal economic disasters. i knew nothing of MennoDiscuss.

and, January 15, 2009: SULLY. (tough act to follow.) a movie was made.

On Jan. 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) tries to make an emergency landing in New York's Hudson River after US Airways Flight 1549 strikes a flock of geese. Miraculously, all of the 155 passengers and crew survive the harrowing ordeal, and Sullenberger becomes a national hero …

“Chesley Sullenberger: an old-fashioned kind of hero”
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/n ... dson-river

i enjoyed all 3 OP videos.

DOUG BROWN speaks in the third video.
i appreciate what he has to say. esp about his faith that sustained him throughout.

he also speaks of how people at-their-finest behave. God bless him.
these tapes are lengthy. i enjoyed them. maybe someone else will, too.

King Air N559DW EPILOGUE (The Rest of The Story) Doug White


o.and. i’ve flown into+out of the FORT MYERS / RSW airport a number of times in the past. (no drama!)
so, that made this account all the more interesting. wonderful memories there.

Um the passenger was a pilot...just not current, and had never flown a plane as large as a King Air. Still a world of difference between a person that has never flown a plane at all.

electro-wiz wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 7:46 am Um the passenger was a pilot...just not current, and had never flown a plane as large as a King Air.
Still a world of difference between a person that has never flown a plane at all.

yes. quite true, and thoroughly covered throughout the tapes.

i agree with Doug Brown, the pieces to this event that worked together toward a safe landing were heart-stoppingly narrow.
starting with the first instructions he gave his family to go to the rear of the plane to pray.
if they, or he, had panicked, that could have been catastrophic, of itself. the tape suggests they were silent - except when he asked his wife to remove the pilot’s dead body (from leaning on the instrument panel). she couldn’t. she did what she could. she tightened his shoulder seat belt, to lift his body away. great presence of mind.

it was a series of crucial (small) things that happened to work together for a safe landing. “small” only because they worked for the best. in the epilogue, Doug Brown noted that one critical cell phone used “crashed” just after he landed. “not just a lost battery,” he said, but the phone (his lifeline) completely failed just after disaster averted.

i admit.
i often enjoy listening in on pilot to ATC discourse. often interesting, if not entertaining. i found this compelling.
i was encouraged that he acknowledged his human vulnerability and God’s greatness throughout.

i appreciated the nod he gave to “the best” of what humans can be, working together toward one constructive end, not bickering, no politics or egos. giving of self.

he had messages people are made better to hear, so absent in today’s squabbling cyberworld.

the tapes mentioned he returned+continued in aviation after this event, even flying humanitarian missions to Haiti.
i wondered if he might have met any Mennonites? not mentioned. Mennonites fly!!

i’m glad you viewed and responded. the tapes are lengthy and probably not interesting to most.

in my effort to give a name to the passenger/pilot, i gave him an incorrect name!

DOUG WHITE / not Doug Brown.
a nod to “small” mistakes??

if a mod cares to correct, that would be fine.

i did not detect 1 word of swearing or cursing.
which has become so common in many circles, it equates to a communications requirement.

i think, one pilot, listening in, was heard to say, “he’s not going to make it.” chilling words.
all involved seemed to ignore it. thankfully, the assessment was mistaken.

Former ATC from NY here… cool story.

Another nail-biter.

2012 / Sturgeon Bay WI / WIFE, 80, LANDS PLANE AFTER PILOT HUSBAND DIES AT CONTROLS / -45min


Helen, “Don’t you have any faith in me?!”

Young pilot in trouble.

Kelsey 74 Gear / “Controller Gives Pilot Terrible News” | ATC vs Pilots / 20min