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Elderly US woman lands plane after pilot-husband dies

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An 80-year-old US woman with little flying experience has staged an emergency landing in Wisconsin after her pilot husband collapsed and died.

Helen Collins remained calm as she brought the small Cessna plane in to land at Cherryland Airport, even though she said she knew her husband was dead.

She had taken basic lessons in taking off and landing 30 years ago, her son told the Associated Press news agency.

James Collins, also a trained pilot, helped guide his mother down via radio.

Mrs Collins and her husband John were coming back from their holiday home in Florida when he suffered a fatal heart attack in the cockpit.

She called the police and local pilot Robert Vuksanovic went up in another small plane to try to help guide the Cessna down.

'Under control'

The plane had almost completely run out of fuel by the time she landed at the small airport in Sturgeon Bay and had only one functioning engine.

"She was calmer than everybody on the ground. She had it totally under control," James Collins told AP.

"The amazing thing is she landed that plane on one engine - I don't know if there are a lot of trained pilots that could do that.

"I already knew I lost my dad; I didn't want to lose my mom. It could have been both of them at once."

Local resident Torry Lautenbach watched the Cessna land and estimated that Mrs Collins circled the airport about 10 times.

"She did a really good job. It was amazing. It took one bad hop and then it came back down and skidded."

Mrs Collins was taken to hospital with injuries to her back and ribs but is expected to be released within the next few days
It skidded down the runway for about 1,000ft (305m) before coming to a halt.

BBC News - Elderly US woman lands plane after pilot-husband dies
 
Must be one of those "stupid" 'Merikuns everybody keeps talking about! :D
 
Who allowed them to fly a plane at such an advanced age? 80 + 81 years old of husband and wife flying all alone?
 
It's very common in USA. An Indian friend of mine fly's an small airplane with a local club! All he has is a mechanical engineering degree and some training.
 
Landing a plane is the most difficult part and that too after 30 years is an effort worth appreciating.I know Pilots who cant land Cessna properly after 2-3 year gap.


But the comment asking if trained pilots can land on one engine or not is BS...Pilots are taught to land in every situation..1 engine or none you learn to land in every situation.
 
Who allowed them to fly a plane at such an advanced age? 80 + 81 years old of husband and wife flying all alone?

Flying small private planes has very different rules than commercial flying here.
 
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