A woman with no formal training sprung into action and landed a small plane in Bakersfield Friday after her husband — the pilot — suffered a heart attack.
“It’s to my knowledge unprecedented,” Ron Brewster, director of airports for Kern County, told Inside Edition. “I’ve never seen it in my entire career.”
The plane, a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90, had departed from Henderson, Nev., and was en route to Monterey when the pilot suffered a heart attack, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The pilot, Eliot Alper, and his wife, Yvonne Kinane-Wells, were married in Henderson in February, just months before the incident.
Kinane-Wells, a real estate agent, personal trainer and triathlete, calmly handled the situation, successfully landing the plane with help from air traffic control, according to audio recordings.
The plane landed at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield around 1:40 p.m., a statement from the FAA said.
In audio recordings released by Inside Edition, an air traffic controller can be heard giving her instructions on altitude and bearing. She responds briefly and in the affirmative.
On recordings from LiveATC.net reviewed by the Times, controllers and pilots are heard working together to monitor the plane and to keep Kinane-Wells’ radio clear for emergency communication.
One controller talks of an incapacitated pilot and a “passenger in the cockpit trying to figure out how to fly,” requesting that others monitor the situation.
“I don’t want to say this on the frequency with the pilot monitoring, but it looks like the wheels are partially out,” another says, suggesting that the ground crew be alerted. He suggests relaying the information on other channels “so she does not freak out.”
Alper, 78, was hospitalized and ultimately died, his office told the Las Vegas Review Journal.
