[nabs-l] Blinded Pilot Guided safely to ground

[Dave Wright]

Hey there all, 
I don't mean to clog up the list with potentially off-topic posts, but wow, this is an amazing story. 


 Blinded Pilot Guided Safely to Ground
>> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>> Filed at 7:42 p.m. ET
>>
>> LONDON (AP) -- A British pilot who was suddenly blinded by a stroke 
>> during a
>> solo flight was talked safely down by a military pilot, the Royal Air 
>> Force
>> said Friday.
>>
>> Jim O'Neill asked for help after he was went blind 40 minutes into a 
>> flight
>> from Scotland to southeastern England last week. The BBC reported that
>> O'Neill, flying a small Cessna aircraft, lost his sight 5,500 feet in the
>> air.
>>
>> ''It was terrifying,'' O'Neill said. ''Suddenly, I couldn't see the dials 
>> in
>> front of me.''
>>
>> The air force said in a news release that O'Neill initially believed he'd
>> been ''dazzled'' by bright sunlight, and made an emergency call for help. 
>> He
>> then realized that something more serious was happening, and said, ''I 
>> want
>> to land, ASAP.''
>>
>> RAF Wing Commander Paul Gerrard was just finishing a training flight 
>> nearby
>> and was drafted in to help the stricken pilot.
>>
>> Gerrard located the plane, began flying close to it and radioed 
>> directions.
>>
>> ''For me, I was just glad to help a fellow aviator in distress,'' he 
>> said.
>>
>> ''Landing an aircraft literally blind needs someone to be right there to 
>> say
>> 'Left a bit, right a bit, stop, down,''' Gerrard said. ''On the crucial
>> final approach, even with radar assistance, you need to take over 
>> visually.
>> That's when having a fellow pilot there was so important.
>>
>> O'Neill's son, Douglas, said his father is an experienced pilot who has
>> flown for nearly two decades. The 65-year-old is recovering in hospital
>> where he is beginning to regain his sight.
>>
>> ''The doctors have confirmed that he suffered a stroke from a blood clot,
>> but he doesn't seem to have suffered any other ill-effects apart from 
>> losing
>> his sight,'' Douglas O'Neill said. ''He says he went blind very suddenly 
>> and
>> then, once he'd got over the shock, was able to distinguish a bit of
>> darkness and light.''
>>
>> In a recording posted to the BBC's news Web site, Gerrard gives O'Neill
>> instructions -- ''a gentle right hand turn, please,'' is called for at 
>> one
>> point -- and he can be heard apologizing.
>>
>> ''You could hear the apprehension in his voice over the radio and the
>> frustration he was experiencing,'' said radar controller Richard 
>> Eggleton.
>> ''I kept saying 'Are you visual?' and he would reply 'No sir, negative, 
>> I'm
>> sorry sir.' He kept on apologizing.
>>
>> With Gerrard talking him down, O'Neill's plane hit the runway and bounced 
>> up
>> again, the RAF said. It did the same on the second touchdown. On the 
>> third,
>> O'Neill was able to keep his plane on the ground.
>>
>> ''It's one of those things you might hear about happening in some sort of
>> all-action film but it's hard to believe what they did,'' Douglas O'Neill
>> said of the RAF. ''They were just tremendous.''



Best Regards:
David Wright

Email: dwrigh6 at uic.edu
Mobile: 832-518-0707

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