Pilot goes blind at 5,500ft, guided home by RAF

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Blind pilot guided to land by RAF

A pilot who suddenly went blind while flying his plane at 5,500ft (1,676m) was guided in to land by an RAF plane.

A plane was scrambled from the RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire to help stricken pilot Jim O'Neill, 65.


He was flying a two-seater Cessna aircraft from Prestwick airport in Scotland to Colchester, Essex, when he suffered a stroke and lost his sight.
The RAF plane flew alongside Mr O'Neill and the pilot shepherded him to the base with instructions over the radio.


Mr O'Neill, who has 18 years' flying experience, was overhead at RAF Leeming in Northallerton when he encountered difficulty and sent a mayday alert last Friday.


Operations commanding officer at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, Wing Cdr Andy Hynd, said: "At first he believed he was being blinded by sunlight because he had difficulty seeing his instruments and so he declared an emergency.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/n...re/7715345.stm

:O wow.

FL150 in a Cessna?!?!

Oh, it's changed to 5,500ft now :p

He was able to see the runway when he was about 50ft above it, lucky! - I feel sorry for the guy, but both him and the RAF and ATCOs did a fantastic job! :)

Got it from airliners.net

Media are always getting it wrong though

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Originally Posted by cocaine

Got it from airliners.net

Media are always getting it wrong though

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Yeah they changed it now :P

Shows you how good the RAF is really. I mean it hard enough to fly a plane, let alone tell someone exactly when to do things

That's amazing! Everyone involved did incredibly well considering the circumstances! :)

Landing is hard enough anyway - But while blind?!? - I know I couldn't do it! Haha, my landings are bad enough anyway.

The 18 years experience he has really paid off - It's a shame that he won't be able to fly as pilot in command again, well at least I would imagine so.

The RAF pilot was also amazing, he managed to describe every stage and exactly what to do to the captain - The recording shows that! :)

Definately an act of God.

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Originally Posted by Loser

Definately an act of God.

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Or for the people that dont believe in god, an act of sheer talent and brilliant training by the RAF specialists

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Originally Posted by K-Lash

Or for the people that dont believe in god, an act of sheer talent and brilliant training by the RAF specialists

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They shall burn in hell. Peace out.