Woman lands plane after pilot husband suffers mid-flight heart attack

In an extraordinary display of courage and quick thinking, Yvonne Kinane-Wells successfully landed a private plane after her husband, pilot Eliot Alper, suffered an apparent heart attack mid-flight.

As reported by FlightAware, a flight tracking website, the aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 90 with registration N6077X, departed from Las Vegas, Nevada at 11:00 local time on October 4, 2024, flying towards Bakersfield, California. There were just two people on the aircraft, the pilot and his wife.  

The pilot suffered a heart attack and lost consciousness during the flight leaving his wife to quickly figure out how to take control of the aircraft.  

At around 13:00 local time, air traffic controllers contacted the pilot’s wife and guided her to California’s Meadows Field Airport (BFL), providing her with detailed instructions on how to land the Beechcraft aircraft. 

Recordings reveal the calm, precise communication:

Controller: "Add a little power."

Kinane-Wells: "Yes, I am."

Controller: "Your altitude's good, 5,900 feet. Stay level at six."

Directed to divert to Bakersfield's Meadows Field, Kinane-Wells executed the landing flawlessly.

Uninjured, she brought the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 safely to the ground.