A woman with no formal training sprang into action and landed a small plane in Bakersfield on Friday after her husband, the pilot, suffered a heart attack.
“As far as I know, this is unprecedented,” Ron Brewster, Kern County airports director, told Inside Edition. “I've never seen him in my entire career.”
The plane, a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90, had taken off from Henderson, Nevada, and was headed to Monterey when the pilot suffered a heart attack, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The pilot, Eliot Alper, and his wife, Yvonne Kinane-Wells, were married in Henderson in February, just months before the incident.
Kinane-Wells, a real estate agent, personal trainer and triathlete, handled the situation calmly and successfully landed the plane with the help of air traffic control, according to audio recordings.
The plane landed at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield around 1:40 p.m., according to a statement from the FAA.
In audio recordings published by Inside Edition, an air traffic controller can be heard giving altitude and heading instructions. She responds briefly and affirmatively.
In LiveATC.net recordings reviewed by the Times, controllers and pilots are heard working together to monitor the plane and keep Kinane-Wells' radio open for emergency communications.
A controller speaks of an incapacitated pilot and a “passenger in the cockpit trying to figure out how to fly,” and requests that others monitor the situation.
“I don't want to say this on the frequency with the pilot monitoring, but it looks like the wheels are partially off,” says another, suggesting that ground personnel be notified. He suggests transmitting the information through other channels “so they don't get scared.”
Alper, 78, was hospitalized and eventually died, his office told the Las Vegas Review Journal.
