Talk about flying blind.
The Irish Times is reporting that an air-traffic controller used SMS text messages to help an instrument-less pilot land safely.
When a twin-engined Piper aircraft lost power to all its avionics systems (electrical power, communications and weather radar) in a “serious incident,” the pilot used his mobile phone to call a nearby airport’s air traffic control center to inform them of his complete electronics blackout. The pilot was flying without any instruments when he lost contact with the air-traffic controller.
The controller managed to get a radar lock on the small airplane and proceeded to send the pilot SMS text messages that guided him all the way down to the runway. The air-traffic controller was praised for his quick-thinking use of text messages to help the disabled plane find its way safely to the ground.
“In this incident the positive and proactive initiative of the ATC controller, who, on realising that mobile audio communication from the pilot was intermittent, quickly switched to texting his instructions instead,” said the air accident investigator assigned to this incident. “This contributed to the safe resolution of the incident and, for such, the controller should be commended for his actions.”
Mobile phones controlling passenger airplanes? Not quite yet, but this surely is no less impressive.
[Via: TheRawFeed]