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An unusual incident occurred during an Air Transat flight when a passenger took control of the aircraft after a crew member became incapacitated.
Flight TS186 departed Toronto, Canada, bound for Punta Cana International Airport, Dominican Republic, and was scheduled to arrive at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time on Monday, November 20. However, the case has only now come to light.
According to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), a crew member was said to be incapacitated after nearly three hours of flight.
Fortunately, one of the 299 passengers on board was a companyqualified pilot and decided to intervene and replace the incapacitated member.
Despite the incident, the aircraft managed to land safely in the Dominican Republic with no injuries reported. The TSB did not provide any information about the exact role of the crew member who became incapacitated during the flight.
This is not the first case of this kind involving Air Transat flights. A similar incident occurred on an Air Canada flight earlier this year. An offduty pilot took over the crew member’s duties after he became incapacitated on a flight from Toronto to Newfoundland.
According to aviation blog FlightCopilot, modern aircraft are designed to have at least two operational pilots: a commander and a copilot. Therefore, the incapacity of a crew member is considered an emergency and would require diversion and landing at an appropriate airport.