And if one of the passengers happened to know how to fly a small single-engine plane, how feasible would it be in that case?
Thanks!How possible would it be for a non-pilot to land an airliner? How about a small plane pilot?If it's a large airliner and the non-pilot passenger has help over the radio from the ground, yes, the passenger can land it. He doesn't need any piloting experience; he only needs the ability to follow instructions precisely.
Modern airliners are heavily automated and fly under computer control for most of the average flight. If both pilots are incapacitated but the aircraft itself is fine, then any reasonably intelligent person can land it with instructions. ATC are not pilots so they can't instruct, but they can usually find someone who is a pilot and can instruct via the radio in a pinch. Landing the aircraft with automation is just a matter of turning knobs and pushing buttons, so anyone who can do that, and who can do it exactly as he is told over the radio, can land the airplane.
(Note that this chance of success is predicated upon the availability of help from the ground. If nobody on the ground can provide instructions on how to set up the airplane to fly and land, then in all probability the aircraft will crash with a non-pilot at the controls. The systems are complex and it is difficult to guess how to make them work through intuition alone, and hand-flying is not an option 鈥?not even for someone with small airplane experience as a pilot, because the handling of large aircraft is quite different and there would be no time to practice.)
Anyway, ironically, if the airplane is a small private plane, then you generally need a real pilot. Small airplanes don't have computers or much in the way of automation, so their ability to fly by computer is very limited, and they cannot land under computer control. So the non-pilot passenger has to actually fly the airplane by hand, which is very difficult to do if you have no prior experience. For this reason, a small plane with a non-pilot at the controls is far more likely to crash than a larger airliner with a non-pilot at the controls.
For safety, in a large airliner, it might even be best to let the airplane fly to its destination, and then configure it to autoland. This is safer because it doesn't require touching any of the flight controls (yoke, rudder, throttles). If the final destination is an airport unequipped for autolands, the non-pilot might have to change the route in the computer, but this is delicate so it would not be done unless absolutely necessary. The best chance of success comes from having the non-pilot follow the simplest path, which means doing nothing that requires flight controls, and minimizing the number of buttons and knobs he must touch.
Pilots are not very happy to admit that this is possible, but modern airliners are so heavily automated that it is entirely possible for a non-pilot to "fly" the airplane just by giving instructions to the on-board computers. Eventually, airplanes will be able to fly entirely by themselves, with no pilots, but for economic and social reasons, that isn't being done today (even though the concept was proved feasible many years ago).
There are some people who have such a knack for flying that they are able to hand-fly an airplane reasonably well on the first try, with no experience. They are very rare, and it would be risky to hope that a non-pilot might be in this category. But as long as he sticks to the automation and there's someone on the ground to walk him through the procedures, he can land the airliner. If he's in a small Cessna, though, he might not make it, with or without help from the ground.How possible would it be for a non-pilot to land an airliner? How about a small plane pilot?
Some random passenger would have about a 1 in 1000 chance of landing an airliner, its just because a random passenger has no feel for how a plane must make approaches and how to flare and land etc.
A pilot with some experience in a single-engine plane will have a 50:50 chance of landing the airliner safely because they will have a fair idea on how to set the plane up for approaches and have a feel for how to land it.How possible would it be for a non-pilot to land an airliner? How about a small plane pilot?With no mechanical problems, plenty of fuel, good weather, the ability to choose a well-suited airport (with precision approach radar and an extremely long runway that can support a long straight-in approach), and a good communications link to an experienced pilot on the ground, someone who could fly a small, single-engine plane would have an extremely good chance, near certain, of making a survivable landing in a modern jumbo jet. This has been tested in simulation. If you start taking those advantages away, however, the odds start to drop dramatically.How possible would it be for a non-pilot to land an airliner? How about a small plane pilot?
today's larger planes can basically land them selves a passenger would only have to listen to air Control to make the auto pilot on the autopilot can't land so there is the possibly that the plane can go down during landing and small single-engine planes are mostly for one or two people (the pilot and co pilot) so if they both have a freak thing then they are dead before they hit the groundHow possible would it be for a non-pilot to land an airliner? How about a small plane pilot?A truism about flying is, the landing is the moment of truth. You could be talked through navigating to the airport. You could be talked through setting up for the approach to the runway.....airspeed, flaps, stab trim.....anyone could be told what to set on those. But the moment of truth comes at that exact moment of touch-down. It's so easy to get killed right there at the end of the runway. And if you haven't had some training in that aircraft type, you are going to be virtually flying blind. It can be done though. The other answers were all good answers.
Well.....
I think it would be easier to land the aircraft than it would be to figure out how to change the frequency on the comm radio, or to shut off the smoke detector in the lavatory.
Actual flight controls are *much* more standard than all of the auxilliary systems.
Sure...people would get banged up, but I think someone could figure it out.
A VFR single engine qualified pilot could do it easily.
especially if you have fuel and the option to make a pass or two.
But I wouldn't expect much help from the ground.How possible would it be for a non-pilot to land an airliner? How about a small plane pilot?
100 % guarantee that you will get the airplane out of the sky. But getting it on the ground with nobody getting injured isn't going to have such good chances. If someone had some basic idea of the controls and could talk to someone on the ground then at least they could crash the plane close to the fire engines and paramedics. But to do a smooth landing, that would be very improbable.
Only Chuck Norris could do this; he would just order the plane to land itself.
There are a few civilian pilots that might pull it off, but it sure wouldn't be pretty. Even airliner pilots share duty when landing.How possible would it be for a non-pilot to land an airliner? How about a small plane pilot?
Easily. They would set up an automatic landing and let the plane land itself.
Little planes take some skill to land. I'm still working on judging flare height.
I advvice to search in yahoo web or wikipedia
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