Over a 10-year period, there were 12 documented instances where a pilot's heart attack was the likely cause of an airplane crash, with many involving solo pilots.
A significant factor in these accidents is pilots actively concealing or minimizing serious disqualifying medical conditions, particularly heart disease, from aviation medical examiners to continue flying.
These incapacitating events often result in fatal crashes, sometimes endangering passengers, with only one rare recorded instance of non-pilots successfully landing a plane after the pilot's cardiac event.
At a recent dinner gathering, a few days after the wonderfully well-omened US Airways ditching in the Hudson, when several guests had been grilling me about bird strikes and ditching procedures, someone commented that her worst nightmare was being in an airplane when the pilot had a heart attack.
“How often,” another guest asked me, “does that happen?”
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Peter Garrison taught himself to use a slide rule and tin snips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He began contributing to FLYING in 1968, and he continues to share his columns, ""Technicalities"" and ""Aftermath,"" with FLYING readers.
