If both pilots were incapacitated, would the flight attendant know how to land the plane?

Source: Wikipedia
Helios Airways Boeing 737

If both pilots were incapacitated, would the flight attendant know how to land the plane?

Scott Richards asks the above interesting question. Well, AIRPORT 1975 was an attempt to portray such a possibility.

In this movie, the captain of a small plane suffered a heart attack and crashes into the cockpit of a Boeing 747. It incapacitated the crew, killing one and blinded the other, leaving no one aboard qualified to fly the plane.

Thankfully, the damage to the plane was not very serious. Hence, it was still flying straight and level because the captain was able to engage the autopilot just before he lost consciousness.

A flight attendant rushed into the cockpit and was able to inform the air traffic control on the status of the flight crew. Fortunately, a flight instructor pilot on another plane guided her on how to use the autopilot, but before long, the radio communication with him was lost.

The story ended with a relief pilot being lowered towards the B747 whilst tethered by a rope from a helicopter. He successfully entered the plane through the hole in the cockpit and landed the plane safely.

A flight attendant would not be able to land an airliner because his/her scope of duty does not include flying a plane except to attend to the safety and comfort of the passengers.

The closest attempt by a flight attendant to save a plane with both pilots incapacitated was seen in the Helios Airways Boeing 737 tragedy on 14 August 2005.

In this incident, the engineer failed to set the pressurization system to the correct position after a maintenance. As such, the aircraft remained unpressurized all the way during the climb up to 34,000 feet.

During the climb the captain radioed the company advising them of some air conditioning problems but missed the correct instructions to reset the system. This miscommunication was probably due to the onset of hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Shortly after that, communication with the aircraft was lost.

Two F-16 fighters were scrambled to intercept the plane and they observed that the first officer was slumped motionless at the controls. The captain’s seat was empty and the oxygen masks were dangling in the passenger cabin.

The fighter crew also observed a flight attendant entered the cockpit and sat down in the captain’s seat. He was conscious because he was still using a portable oxygen bottle.

He waved at the F-16 very briefly, but almost as soon as he entered the cockpit, the left and shortly the right engine shut down when the fuel ran out. The aircraft then crashed into the hills near to Athens, killing all 121 passengers and crew on board.

Even though the flight attendant had a Commercial Pilot License, he was not trained to fly the plane. It is unclear why he took so long to enter the cockpit. If he was able to contact someone on the radio earlier, there was a possibility that he could be talked into landing the plane safely.

See video on ‘The Ghost Flight | Full Documentary | Helios Flight 522’ here