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| Learning to be a pilot, |
| Learning to be a pilot, with fuel running out
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 5-April-2012
3:55:50 AM |
| Nightmares are made of such moments.
Helen Collins, 80 years old, watched the fuel gauge of her small twin-engine airplane drop slowly for more than an hour as it circled a rural Wisconsin runway at an altitude of about 2,000 feet. Her husband, the only pilot in the aircraft, was unconscious at the controls, having apparently suffered a heart attack. She knew that if she was going to survive, she had no choice but to learn how to fly - and fast.
The couple were returning home to Sturgeon Bay, Wis., from Florida on Monday, having stopped briefly in Georgia to refuel before embarking on the final three-hour stretch of their journey. They flew together often, several times a month, storing their planes at the Door County Cherryland Airport, about an hour northeast of Green Bay.
Ms. Collins was still about seven minutes away from the airport when she called for help, dialing 911 dispatchers from her cellphone to say that her husband, John Collins, 81, was unresponsive, and that there was no one to land the plane.
Emergency vehicles quickly arrived at the tarmac and waited. Robert Vuksanovic, a local certified flight instructor, jumped in another plane and flew up beside her, coaching from cockpit to cockpit by radio, trying to cram at least a month's worth of pilot training lessons into mere minutes.
"She had her wits," said Keith Kasbohm, the Cherryland Airport director, who was among the team helping her from the ground. "She's an 80-year-old woman, but she's I guess what I would call a young 80-year-old woman. She's very spry, and to be in that situation and to be able to keep her cool the way she did is just amazing."
She approached the runway three times. The first was just for practice. The second time, she came in too high, too fast, and had to abort the landing.
When she rounded for the third attempt, however, she radioed down to say she could hear her right engine begin to sputter.
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