A UK pilot who believed his instructor to be playing a joke on him made a startling discovery when he realized his "napping" teacher had actually died moments after the pair took to the skies during a 2022 flight, the findings of a newly released investigation have detailed.
Launched by the UK's Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB), the investigation revealed in its findings that the incident took place on the June 29, 2022. The report noted a 57-year-old instructor had suffered an acute cardiac arrest during a short circuit around Blackpool Airport.
During the flight, the co-pilot was under the impression that his instructor was messing with him when his body reportedly slumped over onto the co-pilot's shoulder. The co-pilot only realized what had happened after landing on the runway when his instructor proved unresponsive. He subsequently alerted the airport’s emergency services, but they were unable to revive the instructor.
"The pilot recalled that shortly after take off from Runway 28 the instructor’s head rolled back. The pilot knew the instructor well and thought he was just pretending to take a nap whilst the pilot flew the circuit, so he did not think anything was wrong at this stage,” the report reads.
"He proceeded to fly the aircraft round the circuit. As he turned onto base leg the instructor slumped over with his head resting on the pilot’s shoulder. The pilot still thought the instructor was just joking with him and continued to fly the approach. He landed normally on Runway 28 and started to taxi back to the apron. However, the instructor was still resting on his shoulder and was not responding, and the pilot realized something was wrong."
Officials explained in their report that "the outcome could have been different" had the co-pilot not been considered a qualified aviator.
The surviving pilot said that while the two were taxiing they were talking normally and the instructor said, “Looks good, there is nothing behind you,” in response to a comment about power checks just before he died.
“No tests or assessment can give a 100% reliable detection of cardiac issues [and] a balance needs to be struck between minimizing the risk to flight safety and providing fair and reasonable medical assessment of individuals,” said the AAIB. “The rarity of accidents cause by cardiac events in flight suggests this balance is currently about right.”
The instructor was a seasoned pilot who had passed a medical exam just four months prior to his last flight on a Piper PA-28-161 light aircraft, and was said to have been “his normal cheerful self” that morning before the circuit by those who had flown with him on a trial lesson.