In the age of the tablet, it’s just the sort of inflight emergency many pilots have contemplated dealing with. A pilot and his wife reportedly used their iPad to fly about 80 miles in their darkened cockpit and land safely, without landing gear, at Rapid City Regional Airport in South Dakota after a total electrical system failure.
The couple were flying their single-engine Piper Comanche to Wisconsin from Wyoming on Friday night when they suffered the electrical system failure about 80 miles from Rapid City.
Without a working radio, the pilot was unable to contact the tower before landing the airplane on its belly at around 9:11 p.m. local time. The Comanche skidded to a stop with sparks shooting from the bottom of the fuselage, officials told local reporters.
The couple told officials their only navigation source was their iPad loaded with an aviation app, which they used to fly the remainder of their journey to safety.
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