Sydney
(AFP) - An Australian man venturing into the skies for a first flying lesson
has been forced to make an "amazing" solo landing after his
instructor blacked out mid-flight.
Max
Sylvester's wife and three kids watched from the ground as air traffic control
talked him through safely landing the Cessna two-seater at Perth's Jandakot
airport on Saturday.
The
30-something had issued a panicked mayday call from an altitude of 1,900 metres
(6,200 feet), after his instructor slumped onto his shoulder and could not be
woken.
"Do
you know how to operate the aeroplane," the air traffic controller in
Perth asked urgently, according to a recording of their exchange.
"This
is my first lesson," Sylvester responded, adding that he had never landed
an aircraft before.
Realising the
enormity of the task at hand, the tower responded: "The first thing that
we are going to do is make sure that the wings stay level."
He was
instructed to maintain altitude and to make a pass above the runway to get a
sense of the terrain and become more at ease.
"You're
doing a really great job," the operator reassures the trainee as someone
more familiar with the aircraft was rushed to the tower.
"I
know this is really stressful. But you're going to do an amazing job and we're
going to help you get down to the ground, OK?"
Some twenty
minutes later, the plane made a heart-stoppingly bumpy landing.
"You
did it mate!" exclaimed the air traffic controller. "Well done.
That's amazing!"
The
instructor was taken to hospital in a stable condition and Sylvester received
his first solo flight certificate from the instructor's employer, Air Australia
International.
"This
could have gone way, way bad," Air Australia International owner Chuck
McElwee said, according to public broadcaster ABC.
"But
everything worked out right, and it worked right, mostly because of the
cooperation of the tower."
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