Man lands plane after pilot dies

DOUG WHITE and his family had just enjoyed a smooth takeoff and were ascending through the clouds when the pilot guiding their twin-engine plane tilted his head back and made a choking sound.

The pilot, Joe Cabuk, was dead. And though White had his pilot’s licence, he had never flown a plane as large as this.

“I need help. I need a King Air pilot to talk to. We’re in trouble,” he radioed.

Then he turned to his wife and two daughters: “You all start praying hard.” Behind him, his wife trembled. Bailey, 16, cried. Maggie, 18, got sick.

White, 56, landed the plane on his own about 30 minutes later, coaxed through the ordeal by air traffic controllers who described exactly how to bring the aircraft to safety. When a controller asked whether he was on autopilot, White replied: “I’m in the good Lord’s hands flying this Niner Delta Whiskey,” giving the code for the aircraft.

White had logged about 150 hours flying a single-engine Cessna 172.

The family were on their way home from Marco Island, where they’d travelled after his brother died from a heart attack the week before. White tried to stay calm and listen to the air traffic controllers as they relayed instructions.

“It was a focused fear,” he said. “And I was in some kind of a zone that I can’t explain.”