What could have been a scary moment turned out okay on Wednesday when a pilot from another airline, who was a passenger on the flight, helped land a Southwest Airlines plane when the captain who was flying it became “incapacitated.”
According to the airline, the plane that took off from Las Vegas, Southwest Flight 6013, was forced to abort its trip to Columbus, Ohio, and turn back on Wednesday. The plane had been in the air for a total of 1 hour and 17 minutes, FlightAware.com shows.
The captain of the flight reportedly needed “medical attention,” according to Chris Perry, a spokesperson for the airlines, who didn’t provide more information on what health issue he faced, ABC News reported.
Radio traffic archived on the website LiveATC depicts a person who can be heard claiming the captain of flight 6013 started to have stomach pain before they “fainted or became incapacitated.”
The person also claimed the captain had woken up about a minute later but was being looked at in the back of the plane by a nurse who was on board, the airline shared.
“We need to get him on an ambulance immediately,” the person speaking over the radio said.
The Southwest spokesperson shared that at the time of the health emergency, there was a credentialed pilot who works for another airline on board the plane. The backup pilot entered the flight deck and assisted with radio communication as the other Southwest pilot flew the aircraft back to Las Vegas.
“We greatly appreciate their support and assistance,” Perry said.
After the plane touched down safely from where it had departed, another flight crew took over and flew the plane to Columbus, Perry said, CNN reported.
“We commend the crew for their professionalism and appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding regarding the situation,” Perry said.
As for the pilot who required medical attention, his condition was not made available as of Thursday afternoon. However, the airline shared that his actions followed what is expected of their pilots, USA Today reported.
“It’s standard procedure for our Flight Crews to request assistance from traveling medical personnel during in-flight medical events involving Customers, this situation just so happened to involve one of our employees,” the airline said.
The incident is currently being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
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