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There are some well documented stories of non-pilots successfully landing airplanes after the pilot was incapacitated. Usually this involves radio assistance by ATC and/or flight instructors.

My question is whether there is any statistical data available about the success rate of such landings. I would judge success by the lives saved by the landing attempt.

I am aware that the term "non-pilot" is somewhat vague, in that it could refer to anything from a complete novice to a student pilot or even a GA pilot trying to land a commercial jet. Any kind of statistical data involving people punching above their weight trying to land an airplane in an emergency would qualify as an answer.

Ulli T
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    Interesting question - welcome to Av.SE! – Ralph J Apr 17 '21 at 14:06
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    My suspicion is that it would be difficult to get any statistically significant figures on these events because they happen quite rarely. This related question might be a jumping-off point, but of course the newsworthy events will be the ones where the talk-down was successful, otherwise the story would be simply "the plane crashed." – randomhead Apr 17 '21 at 14:40
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    @randomhead That's exactly why I asked. News reports are usually not a good source for statistical data ;) So getting a feeling for whether there are 1, 10 or 100 catastrophic crashes for every successful landing is what I'm looking for. – Ulli T Apr 17 '21 at 15:41
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    The problem is not every GA pilot that is incapacitated -- which is rare; 3 per 1,000 accidents (fatal or not) -- is accompanied by a passenger, and "flight assist" reports don't have a checkbox for success or fail (more than once a day a GA pilot asks for ATC assistance in USA). I've tried to put together a meaningful answer, but it's simply not possible. Too rare for a significant figure. –  Apr 28 '21 at 19:33
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    How does it make any sense to close as "Opinion-Based" a question asking for stats??? Just because it turns out that such stats aren't kept - as far as any of us have found *so far* - why does the question need to be closed? VTLO, empatically. – Ralph J Apr 29 '21 at 01:52
  • @ymb1 Thank you for putting in the effort! I guess "Too rare for a significant figure" is sort of an answer in itself. Would it make sense to post it as an answer for me to accept after a while if no-one else comes along with new insights? – Ulli T Apr 29 '21 at 07:15
  • To address the headline of the question - if it’s a talk-down landing then something has likely gone badly wrong already. – Frog Apr 17 '22 at 21:40
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    @Frog agreed. But as long as the aircraft is still flying, there's still room for things to get much, much worse. – Ulli T Apr 25 '22 at 14:43

2 Answers2

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I know of half a dozen successful talkdowns, not always due to incapacity, but more to do with say a student on first solo, losing a wheel on takeoff.

I dont know of any failures.

Stats hard to get, but any assistance is likely to vastly reduce the amount of 'accident'. Even if its steering the aircraft away from populated areas, slowing down, having services on standby etc.

JohnnyJP
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Unfortunately, an accurate answer would require the existence of a consolidated database created for the express purpose of tracking the type of "talk-down landings" posed in your question.

Although it's likely local ATC Facility logs would contain a reference (with details) to a "talk-down landing" (if one occurred at that facility) finding a central (National/International) consolidated record created for this purpose is very unlikely.

  • Accepted. After a year without anyone finding relevant data on this, I think it is safe to assume that it simply doesn't exist. At least not in a condensed form that would allow statistical analysis. – Ulli T Apr 25 '22 at 14:39