Pilot Declares Emergency Because Of Extreme Hypoxia
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- Опубликовано: 4 июн 2009
- I got this clip from the NATCA Archie Awards, where NATCA gives out awards for the best ATC. www.natca.org/mediacenter/Arch...
Full Description:
Over the radio, Jay McCombs tried hard to understand the slow, slurring words muffled among the blaring sirens sounding in the background. The radio was poor, and the pilot difficult to understand, leaving only unintelligible transmission and uncontrollable noise to be heard.
Controllers at Cleveland Center were now faced with the complex and difficult task of deciphering the message if they had any chance of finding a solution. The critical diagnosis that was to come would make all the difference in securing the safety of the Kalitta Learjet, KFS66.
The events unfolded on July 26, 2008 when McCombs accepted the hand-off of KFS66, which appeared to have a stuck mike creating incomprehensible transmissions. Unclear to those in the Center, however, was that the co-pilots arm was all the while moving violently and uncontrollably on the other end as the captain worked hard to hand fly the aircraft.
Through the help of another pilots translation, Jay learned that the aircraft had declared an emergency. The plane was quickly changing altitude and McCombs immediately began to suggest closer airports, only to receive no reply.
Amid the chaos to translate the captains words, fellow controller Stephanie Bevins turns on the receiver so that she can now hear the pilot with her own headset. As she thinks through the symptoms in her head, she concludes that he must be hypoxic, a serious condition involving lack of oxygen due to pressurization problems. She knows immediately that they must descend the aircraft.
Following Bevins initiative, McCombs begins bringing the aircraft to the lowest altitude available in order to alleviate the possible oxygen deprivation. Unable to answer questions, the pilot is only able to respond to direct commands that the controllers now begin to voice. Descend and maintain, they repeat.
Remarkably, the captains inability to turn on autopilot requires him to have to work in order to fly the airplane, keeping him conscious and the plane airborne. The pilots words gradually become more understandable, and around 11,000 feet, he returns to normal and confirms that he had, indeed, been suffering from hypoxia.
Without Bevins and McCombs, there is no telling what would have happened. Bevins diagnosis made all the difference to the fate of the passengers, and without McCombs, the necessary actions to solve the problem would not have been taken to get the aircraft down safely. Various individuals were involved in the assistance of KFS66, clearly stated by McCombs who says that the entire area (Area 5) worked extremely well as a team.
Seeing that this is amazing story embodied by unusual and startling circumstances, it is clear why this case study has not only been chosen as an Archie winner, but also as a classroom teaching aid at the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in Oklahoma City. 
Кино
"Unable to control altitude. Unable to control airspeed. Unable to control heading. Other than that, everything is A-OK!"
Story of my life
perhaps this mood of well being is because of euphoria
How nonchalantly spoken
"Hey I'm losing consciousness and the plane is basically not being piloted, but other than that, we're chillin."
Lolol underrated comment.
Omg 😂
That’s what hypoxia will do to you. O_O
"We bout to die other than that we Gucci"
@Darius Beaumont So you want to purposefully laugh at someone suffocating (or in other serious danger), instead of helping, because they used humor to cope with the seriousness of a video.
And you're calling others a child?
You're comprehension of why they are making a joke and your "solution" is at best childish at worst psychopathic.
The pilot and his speech improved very quickly once he decended.. a good result.
nelson 100 having done low O2 training, it's instant. I saw a recording of myself and it's like your instantly drunk I feelt floaty and itchy then instantly sober. Does weird stuff to you that's for sure.
fhhsvnggbh
Is that required to become a commercial pilot?
Yikes!
It is part of receiving a high altitude endorsement. Their is a difference between commercial piloting and operating in altitudes that induce hypoxia.
*There
Learn how to spell.
Spelling is not the problem. It was grammar. If you have a problem with someone at least be able to correct them properly. If you want to be an asshole over something so menial then don't say something just as stupid.
When you can already hardly speak due to Hypoxia and you have to request vectors to a name of "Ypsilanti" xd
www.google.com/#q=map+ypsilanti+mi
OLGMC Ypsilanti willow run airport by Detroit Michigan is one of Kalittas main base of operations
LOL
Ypsilanti (ip-si-lan-ti) is hard to say even on the ground! Most out of towners say yes-planti :-)
Could have been SCHENECTADY NY
I'm surprised it took the atc that long to tell him to descend. The guy sounded like he was a minute or two from being completely out.
I was wondering about that myself. I'm guessing he wasn't that far up from FL110.
He said he was decending to FL260. So he had to have been above that
seconds not minutes. major emergency etc should of triggered and said emergency decent
Tyler Hansen 'we think he has hypoxia' gosh!!! I am no pilot or aviation expert but those alarms in the background doesnt do much to alert ATC,does it? :( but the drawl.....the laboured forming of words... Even That wasnt enough? :(
No kidding it was like pulling teeth . This can’t be an example of good performance by atc but rather amazing patience and skill of the pilot .
I think that captain deserved some award for managing to land safely alone as in reports it says the co pilot was unconscious and by sound of him he wasn't far from being unconscious.
Agree although it sounds like at the end of the 'video' he got rid of hypoxia. Maybe lower alt or he just used an oxygen mask. So I think while landing he was feeling much better.
+LexonyAble I think you're right and I think whoever talked to the pilot recognized it was hypoxia and told him to decrease his altitude and the pilot talked normally after that.
He totally saved the life of anyone in that plane
Jorgen Dewez yup still amazing he was able to give info to the person on the ground in this state.
km o wh
i think his situation improved when he was closer to the airport to land.. you can totally hear he is speaking way more fluently , I don't he could have landed in the state he was at first.
Unable to control altitude
Unable to control airspeed
Unable to control heading
Other than that, everything is A-OK! LOL
Gervin , It is strange, but, when there is hypoxia, there is a strange sensation of happiness and the will of making jokes
anisocoro one of the effects of hypoxia is becoming euphoric.
Gervin allways keeping calm 😂
It's like some drugs or much of alcohol. Unconscious but still talking, witch is terrifying.
Lol
Wow... Nothing I learned in my flight training taught me about hypoxia like this recording did. He sounds absolutely lying-in-the-gutter-peeing-himself drunk! He seemed so close to unconsciousness, and, to me, completely indistinguishable from severe drunkenness. Sure, the books tell you it resembles drunkenness, but this is just eerie. This should be shown in private pilot ground school.
I mean, wow.
agree on that one...
Most pilots dont fly high enough to become hypoxic as far as I know. Although I'm no expert so dont hold me to that one.
@Fernandino Alonsini I was talking about private pilots not the ones who do it for a living.
BAKED2POTATO420 Private Pilots too fly above these altitudes. Depending on the airplane they would then need to take oxygen masks and tanks with them
dcs002 they teach about hypoxia in private pilot training now
*everything around telling him that he's gonna die*
"A-Okay!"
It’s because of hypoxia (lack of oxygen going to the brain)
Unable to control altitude
Unable to control airspeed
Unable to control heading
Monday morning for me
Story of my life
I admire this pilot's ability to maintain sarcasm while under such extreme conditions.
*****
i'm not sure this was meant to be funny...he propably just didn't have any idea what's going on anymore...still that line was hillarious xD
We are slowly. EVER so slowly...
***** It's probably not sarcasm, it´s hypoxia. The guy might not have been aware that he couldn't speak properly.
When deprived of oxygen, the brain gradually slows down and turns off. That includes the ability to assess the situation and its own abilities. In other words one becomes what used to be called a proper Moron. Also euphoria often kicks in. In this case they managed to descent before it got too far.
For those who wonder, the effect differs from asphyxiation in that in hypoxia the CO2 is vented out through lungs. It is only the level of CO2 in blood that triggers the sensation of suffocating. Surprisingly, the human body has no sensors for low oxygen (so much for an "intelligent" design hehe).
Because of the narcosis effect and euphoria, hypoxia is an excellent way to humanly kill most oxygen breathing creatures.
misium exactly. Well said it was definitely not sarcasm
IdentiMind These pilots were based out of Morristown,TN and the company is no longer in business. Both pilots could not recall the incident and were let go due to not following the before flight check list.They were VERY lucky that this did not end bad.
Hypoxia is insidious, because one of the side effects is that you are convinced everything is fine. Or, as this pilot said, "A-OK."
When I did a session in a hypobaric chamber, they had us write our name and answer simple addition questions on a kneepad as the altitude increased. I can recall distinctly thinking at the time; "wow, I'm totally killing this, I'm not being affected at all and I'm able to answer every math question and still write my name perfectly with no problems! I must be immune to hypoxia."
Then they brought the altitude back down. First thing I noticed was that it was like someone turned the "color" setting back on in my eyes (I hadn't realized at the time that it had gone away and that I wasn't seeing in color). When we were back at ground level pressure, I looked at my kneepad. What I had thought was perfect writing and math answers was actually illegible scribbling, and the stuff I had written at the highest altitude was just a wiggly line going off the side of the page. Yet at the time, I KNEW I was writing everything perfectly.
that's fascinating
wow, the pilot did a great job with his speech, managing to make himself understood under those circumstances by speaking slowly and clearly. Well done.
not really, when you are hypoxic( lack of O² ) you will talk like that
lol, I think you missed the point...
Suit yourself
i don't think he talked like that on purpose.
ps: i like you a 5 line conversation can span across 4 years.
he wasn't talking like that on purpose. he was high on low air low! lol.
I played this video for a controller friend of mine and asked him what he thought the problem was and he responded "he's drunk". I also asked another friend whos in school to be a controller and he'd never heard this video before either. This video Should be required viewing for any Air Traffic Controller. Its a great teaching tool..
Maybe a stroke, but drunkenness? This goes far beyond drunkenness. This is mental retardation:
Painfully slow, slurred speech
Nonsensical stream-of-consciousness monologue radio calls
Carefree attitude during a declared emergency
In case ATC didn't have enough clues:
Radar/transponder altitude data
Alarm siren in the background
The fact that ATCs have no training on a condition that pilots are unable to self-diagnose is criminal.
Incredible mental strength of this guy to keep getting clear messages and coherent speech, damn! Get him in a fighter or something.
ATC: lmao same tho
That second pilot was a hero. Saving that guy.
Yeah... The second pilot... The one who heard it and helped translate. Second pilot doesn't mean second in command.
palonazo No, there was a second pilot on board Kallita-66, as well. You hear a pilot in a different aircraft relaying to ATC early in the recording, but later, after the aircraft has descended, you hear the second pilot on Kallita-66 talking. Listen to the callsign being used. He isn't talking earlier because he wasn't conscious.
palonazo "Obviously there were two pilots in the airplane..." It wasn't "obvious" to you back in April, when you wrote, "No second pilot there. All there was is another traffic relaying radio messages."
"... what in this video makes anyone a hero." You'd have to ask whomever said that; I didn't.
*****
hahahah BUSTED!
+palonazo uh… it says "SECOND PILOT" throughout the entire video. you know, the guy that clarified for ATC that the hypoxic pilot requested the vectors for Ypsilanti not Cincinnati. THE GUY WHOSE NAMED IS LITERALLY "SECOND PILOT"
When he starts listing off all things he can't control (the critical aspects of flying) your heart just sinks.
He said he can´t control.. he didn´t say he can´t maintain. ;-)
He couldn't control these things because his copilot was unconscious, slumped over the controls, but he was so hypoxic that he didn't care about the copilot, and didn't realize that was the reason why he couldn't control the airplane.
But other than that, everything is A-OK!
realityhitsmehardbro I
That just sounds like my life in general....
Euphoria is a very common symptom of hypoxia.
The fact that it took the ATC that long to come up with the facts in regards to hypoxia is quite chilling, you had the alarms blaring from the start of the transmission and the guy barely able to speak a coherent sentence and yet the ATC continued speaking with him as if the only issue was the plane.
yeah. ATC should be prepared for this. The instructions and communications from ATC were also very complex.
@@RM-el3gw Very true. Controller spoke as if the Mayday pilot was 100%. No modulation for the emergency in progress
@@RM-el3gwATC are rarely pilots.
@@user-zp6ff2gr4nOk but they should be trained to identify potential hypoxia and some kind of protocol for handling it as part of their job.
and yet, they gave the ATC AN AWARD for his 'quick thinking (!!??) and handling of this emergency"!!!! this is disgusting to me! the ATC didnt even realize this was an emergency, in spite of the pilots obvious incapacitation, and another planes pilot TELLING THE ATC OPERATOR!! if anyone deserves an award, it is the pilot of the other plane drawing the attention to the emergency call to the ATC operator.....he should be fired, not awarded!!
I’m military aircrew. We undergo rapid decompression and hypoxia training in the chamber at RAF Henlow.
It amazed me how totally unaware I was of my predicament (if I wasn’t sat with a doctor next to me in the chamber monitoring me) we are allowed a max of 4 mins at 25000 ft off oxygen. We are tasked with doing simple tasks. Addition/ subtraction, draw shapes etc and then mark on the page at minute intervals.
At 3m and 30 seconds I was ordered to put my oxy mask back on. Apparently I sat there blissfully unaware of the fact that had I not been in a controlled environment I would soon be dead. The idea being that we then go back and review the tasks we were supposed to carry out so that we become self aware of our own personal symptoms as we start to go hypoxia. I will say though it would be a happy death as you don’t even see it coming.
SmarterEveryDay has a great video on this. At one point they outright tell him he's going to die if he doesn't put his mask on and he just keeps smiling. Scary stuff.
I always wanted to do this and watch the video afterwards of how badly I was impaired.
I heard through the grapevine that you can be booted out of flying in the military if you don't recognize your symptoms before being told you have to put the mask back on. is this true?
I was flying my hang glider at high altitude for the first time. I had O2, but not turned up enough. I noticed that whenever I would look at my flight instrument, that by the time my eyes focused on it, I had forgotten the piece of information I wanted. Then I realized that was bad. Then I realized I should do something about it quickly. So I descended a few thousand feet.
I applied to join the raf and got told i wasnt rich enough to join ....smh
This is one of the scariest things I have ever heard. So glad Captain was alert enough to follow instructions of ATC.
I can't control airspeed, altitude, or heading, but other then that I'm fine. XD
feels good man!
+Max W Aircraft is totally outta control, but everything else is A-OK! :D Points for optimism at least ;)
Sounds good to me. Could be worse...
hypoxia kicked in , lucky he made it in one piece .
Canadian Donald Trump than*
I know these pilots. The reason the second pilot didnt talk is because he was passed out. The only reason either of them lived is because they had the autopilot off since the captain was an old school pilot and flew by stick, so the muscle movements kept him alive long enough to decend.
1:35 We're unable to do anything but that's ok!
+RifRaf T ReX After this, the pilot said that he didn't really know what he was saying and didn't mean to say that.
I think we all know that!
He may not remember his thinking, but at the time, he probably meant to. Euphoria would have caused him to think everything was dandy.
It probably helped him in the long run because that made it pretty clear he wasn't thinking straight due to hypoxia
Controller takes minutes to ascertain hypoxia. A pilot hears it in about 15 seconds ?
Experience
Yeh who found out he had hypoxia?
Ally Bamma read description
Well, I'm pretty sure he'll realize in 0.5s the next time, after this.
"Fellow controller Bevins"
This is a perfect example of what a Type 1 diabetic like myself often experiences when having a hypo, instead of the lack of oxygen it is a lack of sugar for me. My friend recorded me talking on the phone while having a hypo and i sounded and reacted in the same way; Even after 20+ years living with diabetes it is very hard to identify yourself so I can understand and respect the amazing job done by the controllers and other people on the frequency to help the crew manage the hypoxia
Wait a sec...ATC suspected (eventually) hypoxia and requested descend to 26 thousand? That's still in the death zone...WTH?
Amazing that he was able to maintain control of the aircraft being hypoxic.
Fill an empty airbed with the air from your lungs as fast as you can.
When you feel dizzy and your vision is blurred than congrats: You are hypoxic ;-)
He was fighting with everything he had. Never gave up on himself. Good man💪
I've been through hypoxia training 2 or 3 times. When I'm hypoxic, I just don't care. Nothing is important. Hats off to those pilots who were able to focus and stay with such a thick skulled ATC. I would have been dead and wouldn't have cared.
The pilot is not being brave by saying "everything is A-OK"... He is delirious...
"high"
You can hear the low-oxygen alarm going off in the background.
low oxygen alarm uh...
+GeneralSirDouglasMcA Oh my...
+GeneralSirDouglasMcA
Is that what that is?
That's the cabin altitude alert
Is there some sort of standard sound for each alert, so the controller would know what was going wrong? Or do they all have different types of siren? A voice saying "LOW OXYGEN WARNING!" would be dead handy right about then, and the chip to do it would cost a couple of dollars.
1:10 Unable to control altitude, airspeed, and heading, other than that EVERYTHING IS A-OK!!!
“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. This is Captain Morgan speaking with your co-pilot, Jack Daniels. We are currently flying at 33,000 feet and will be taking off shortly.”
Lmao
This is gold lol
But no! He sounded drunk but wasn't.
I'm a pilot and this just killed me 😂😂
Hahaha
Thank goodness the second pilot was around, I don't think the controller would have figured out this guy was hypoxic, especially since he didn't get it within the first two minutes. Atc was lucky the hypoxic pilot didn't pass out... Scary stuff.
Did the pilot realize he was hypoxic? Does it help to hyperventilate?
@@budbuddybuddest NO, absolutely not! Hyperventilating will only help you die faster.
2nd pilot was not around. he was unconscious. he woke up asoon as plane descended. kudos to this pilot who did not went unconscious
@@Subconapp the copilot was unconscious but there was also another pilot
@@budbuddybuddestYou don't consume the oxygen as you breathe in, as you do with the food you eat, though this is a common misconception. The concentration of oxygen in the air is in balance with the concentration of oxygen in the blood of your lungs. The oxygen just moves from where is more (the air in your lungs) to where is less (your blood), until there is the same amount in both places. The air you exhale still contains about 80% of the oxygen you breathed in.
Hyperventilation only marginally raises your oxygen concentration, and it has diminishing returns. It can only ever help you reach a concentration that the air has, which at these altitudes is not enough. (This is a simplification. There is haemoglobin in your veins, not air, and oxygen prefers haemoglobin. Regardless, the concentration of oxygen in the air will set a hard limit of the oxygen saturation of the blood.)
The purpose of hyperventilation instead is getting rid of CO2, which, if you do too much, even at these high altitudes will increase the pH of your blood until you pass out from that.
ATC and the other pilot should have recognized the symptoms and told him to get below 14,000 Not the 26,000
i think they where trying to get him tio descend slowly so as to not make his slowed brainpower think " DIVE DIVE DIVE!! DIVE FOR GLORY DIVE !!!!" and not be able to pull out or realize he's fucked up.
AcolyteOF Fire fucking lol!!
The higher you are, the more time you have to fix things before you hit the ground, and the further you can travel. So altitude = safety sometimes. When you don't have loss of cabin pressure. It's easy to be wise in hindsight.
Amazing professionalism by the pilot.
I was a flight instructor at the Black Forest Gliderport in Colorado where many people came to get their altitude diamonds in gliders which required a 16,000 foot gain in altitude. This required a flight to around 30,000 feet in the wave coming off Pikes Peak. The gliders were equipped with breathing oxygen but the cockpits were not pressurized. I've been to around 30,000 feet in gliders perhaps 200 times during orientation (instructional) flights and we always used the pilot's voice to know if they were becoming hypoxic. I knew what was wrong as soon as I heard the pilot's first transmission and it amazes me that the ATC controller didn't recognize it and immediately send him to a lower altitude. Fortunately there were other flight crew members with working oxygen masks who took charge of the flight.
A pilot's voice... Sounds like great advice. A pilots muscle memory skills or autopilot will keep the blue-side up. so the voice is the give away! Thanks.
i didnt see that there were other flight crew taking over......and it certainly didnt sound like it in the transmissions either
I was raised in the Andes (over 4000 meters) and went trekking a lot with tourists at the mountains surrounding my town. I could tell that was hypoxia from the third word he tried to pronounce
3 minutes and 25 seconds to think he has hypoxia. He is lucky the pilot wasn't unconscious in that amount of time at 26,000 feet. Atc should have gotten him down to 10,000 feet asap
Ikr
Shut it. You haven't worked a high pressure job one day in your life.
You set autopilot to 13,000 and then select vertical speed for a a very quick descent just in case you don't stay conscious.
@@devintariel3769 In this situation, the first officer was unconscious and moving his hands around pushing the autopilot button, so the pilot was flying the plane by hand the entire time. It's probably what kept him awake because if he had nothing to do I think he would have joined the first officer and went to sleep.
Excellent job, proud of you.
And thank you for the help ATC have given me in the past, we couldn't fly without them.
+Robert Bolt After this, FAA gave them the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Medal of Safety!
Have to say its really odd to have this in an archive for best ATC awards when the ATC seemed pretty clueless
exactly!!
2:02 You can tell he is making every effort to get those words out in a coherent way. Scary stuff. You can train to recognize symptoms and heighten tolerance some, but even the most seasoned pilots and mountain climbers will succumb to it. No one's immune.
That's scary stuff. He is so out of it he doesn't even know he actually hypoxic and needs to descend
Theres a famous hypoxia experiment video on YT, they have him in a chamber and start pumping the oxygen out. At one point one of the instructors tells him to his face that unless you put your mask on you will die. He just keeps smiling, totally oblivious
"Unable to control... HEEEADING!!" I'm sorry, but I lost my shit
He sounds like Norm Macdonald part of the time.
00bean00 One of the effectsof hypoxia. Pilot had no clue he sounded like that
That fucking username and profile pic. Lol
Mateus Vinícius yeah same
I'm honestly surprised, that this pilot can even focus, having extreme hypoxia, to descend in altitude.. Most people can't even put on an oxygen mask at that point to be able to even remotely function, let alone navigate an airplane. Amazing pilot. Depending on his o2 sat level was, which was likely 65 or below, he was very high, and just absolutely amazing that he could perform even the simplest of tasks. I'd love to meet this pilot, and shake his hand. He's a walking ghost.
1:09 it's frightening that once you get 'high' you become unable to take even a life threatening situation seriously. On the other hand, the ironic distance probably helped him to remain relatively calm throughout.
That's actually a very interesting point, usuckatsoldering. It is, indeed, ironic that the hypoxia may well have kept the pilot calm enough to fly to a lower/safe altitude instead of freaking out/stalling/pitching the nose up instead of down or whatever other pilot errors occur when there's sensory overload & inappropriate actions are taken.
I like you.
Thank God that the other pilot or controller was on the ball.
The distressed pilots articulation despite his incapacitation is miraculous -- surprised he didn't begin to recognize his condition and request permission for immediate descent.
The transition was incredible.
Oxygenate, aviate, navigate and communicate.
Apparently the second pilot was passed out and kept switching off auto pilot with his uncontrolled body movement which meant the pilot had to fly manually, that probably kept him awake for that long having to steer the plane. If he had been able to switch on auto pilot maybe he would have passed out and the planed stayed at 32000 feet until it burned out. Really lucky the pilot managed to stay awake!
hypoxia is scary. amazing to hear how much better they sounded once they went lower. great video.
I take my hat off to the pilot. His determination, despite the conditions his brain was having to work under, was incredible.
I had CHILLS and TEARS listening to this awesome brave professional Pilot slurring his words trying so hard.....BLESS HIS ALPHA MALE HEART
Incredible pilot. Very professional and diligent ATC.
good guy translating for atc :) legend
1:09 representation of my life..
A world of respect for both the pilots and ATC on the handling of this emergency. This is why I have so much admiration for line pilots. They stare death in the face with great training and utter control.
the top of my head just went numb and I have goose bumps all over listening to this
The alarm going off in the background of the aircraft should of been a huge indication for the controller.
+ed2276 Yes, when you have hypoxia and get adequate oxygen, you really do bounce back that fast. Same thing with glucose if you're hypoglycaemic.
I am stinned how this pilot was able to still be so professional whilst suffering the effects of hypoxia.....well done sir!!!!!
Thank goodness everyone was okay. Well done to keeping calm in the few of adversity!! Hats off to you guys :)
The fact that this had a happy outcome allows me to laugh hysterically every time I hear this.
UNBELIEVABLE STUFF !!! THANK GOD FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL ATC WORK !! THANK YOU ATC FOR KEEPING US THE PILOTS ALIVE FROM THE RADAR SCREEN !! EXCELLENT WORK 😊😊
how he still kept it together is outstanding!
Thanks for posting this compelling piece of audio!
It took ATC 3 minutes to instruct a descend, that's just weird. You can hear the cabin altitude alarm going off. It was obviously hypoxia
That pilot was 2 minutes from being dead and he didn't even realize it. That is some scary stuff.
Fascinating recording. Thank you!
Say what you will, I'm thankful for our ATC professionals every time I fly.
This is by far the most terrifying ATC recording I've ever heard.
@@SusanKay- wow, you are talented at writing. I'm only on the first two lines of this so far. I remember these images. I was in 6th grade.
Pilot: suffering from hypoxia.
ATC: same slick ATC lingo Mumbo jumbo.
An excellent result and superb awareness from the atc.
Smartereveryday has a great video about hypoxia, showing it and explaining it!
It’s scary and incredible!
Here’s an idea... integrate pulse oximeters into the control column handholds (Boeing) or the side stick (Airbus) so the plane can monitor pulse oximetry. My Apple Watch can do it. It can monitor my heart rate, SpO2 (blood oxygen concentration), etc. So figure out a way to integrate that into a place that pilots and co-pilots hold their hands on a near constant basis [like the handholds on the control column on a Boeing, or on the side stick on an Airbus (and/or the throttle levers on both)]. Just an idea to attempt to give an earlier warning than slurring or at least a way to test to see if that’s the issue. It’s amazing to me that these guys didn’t spot it right off. One didn’t hear the other slurring? Granted, I may have only partial information or may be misinformed. So take this with a grain of salt. It’s just an idea. I’ve been a paramedic for 17 years. I know hypoxia is an easy detect and fix. On earth. I don’t know how much more difficult it would become at altitude, but it doesn’t seem like it would be any more difficult, logically. Anyway. Take this idea and run with it if you want. Thanks for reading!
Or just give them an Apple Watch to wear. Let's not re-invent the wheel.
Apple watch isn't very sensitive to hypoxic conditions.
I felt the air traffic controller kept talking to keep him awake and working
It doesn't work that way. You can't talk someone through having no oxygen 😂
AND I also Bless the second Pilot and the ATC staff....wow amazing to hear the Pilot's normal speech suddenly returning
omg.....there was no 'second pilot' only the passed out co-pilot....the real savior was the pilot of the other plane in the area, telling the ignorant atc operator what was happening!!
Pilot saying A-OK is perhaps he has euphoria. Mood of wee being
took the controller 4 minuets to instruct a decent when the guy clearly was suffering from hypoxia. Too slow for me.
ATC probably didn't realize that the pilot not flying had hypoxia.
A bit arrogant of you. Are you ATC? Pity you weren't there in the moment trying to figure it all out. You would have been great help - not. I'm sure they copped it after the second or third rambling transmission and only mentioned it in transmission later.
...Without video title saying hypoxia, my 1st thought would've been a pilot with English as a second language.
Brian Sparks really? His English is perfect, his pronunciation is perfect, you can clearly tell he’s in some sort of distress. Especially with the alarms blaring in the background
Camila C ...I'm not prone to telling fanciful stories on RUclips comments.
This gives me so much anxiety.
Never ceases to amaze me the calmness of most professional pilots under pressure and adversity......
Incredible! Great work by pilot and ATC in getting the plane to safety.
Glad he had a near by pilot to assist him with ATC.
This is really scary!!!
Such a good outcome for how severe the hypoxia seemed to be experiencing. This really could have easily been a tragedy.
Remarkable case study on the human brain's versatility. The sirens in the background add to the feeling that within his brain, this man experienced the neurological equivalent of operating on emergency power reserve, diverting remaining power to life support and switching everything to manual operation.
i love it when people dont know what theyre talking about on youtube
Amazing how fast he sounded sober again. Instantaneous. The sound of the alarm in the background must have scared people.
It was also hard not to laugh at him too. The fellow ATC Stephanie is the one who figured out he was hypoxic.
Actually you can ki d of hear that he gets better at 26000... It's just slightly clearer in his voice, and then completely gone at 11. Just amazing he was able to stay awake and aware.
OMG, that was spooky!!
To hear someone with hypoxy was disturbing. My first listen of such a thing. The way he came out of it at 11,000 feet.. wowie wowie.
There is a God as copilot...
That shook me up a bit...
This is the ultimate example of cool heads prevailing in an emergency. man they should be so proud of themselves. They deserved the Archie Award for such professionalism. I think Pilots have become too dependant on new technologies, thank goodness there was old school on board, otherwise this would have been another sad story for the news. when the Co-pilot came too he didn't allow himself to be startled, he was brilliant as-well. But thank goodness for the people on the ground. HEROES.
As someone who has suffered (and been observed from suffering) hypoxia, this sounds so familiar - but ten times scarier given I'm not a frigging airline pilot...
"everything a-ok!"
Not sure why it wasn't obvious to the first controller. Pilot sounded completely out of it - an obvious sign of hypoxia. I mean, when a cop pulls over a driver and he's slurring his words, it's obvious from the get go he is drunk or high (or suffering a stroke). He wouldn't need to have a five-minute conversation to figure that out. Thank goodness the other controller was there to recognize it instantly.
If the controller in question NEVER had this situation presented to him before, it's completely possible he just didn't recognize the symptons. Sure, he studied hypoxia on paper, but he may have underestimated how and when it occurs, and the effect it could have on a pilot.
... Well, when you're watching a video titled "extreme hypoxia" it does make it somewhat easier to see.
+Absurdist Would I have known about hypoxia without the word in the title? No. But just from listening to his speech, it's extremely obvious that he's IMPAIRED. As a flight controller, you would know the probable whys and hows, and go from there.
As recently as 10 years ago, ATC school included a spin in the hypoxia rig. Pilots got a strong dose, too--like the pilot here. Also, Private Pilots could (and perhaps still can) schedule a "ride" in OK City. During the ride, I was asked to perform simple tasks while the 02 mixture was gradually leaned; after reaching the "edge of stupidity" I was unable to speak clearly, and was oblivious to my extreme mental impairment. In addition to an epic headache, afterward, I was given a VHS tape of my experience as a souvenir AND to share with other pilots. Some day I might dig it up, make a digital master, and post it here.
So not only were you impaired, but you didn't even realize there was something wrong? That's really cool. I'd love to watch that video if you ever get it uploaded!
It sounds like we just had another, with a sad ending. Tennessee to Long Island, NY, it reversed course and got attention when he overflew Washington D.C. today at 34000 feet. The aircraft was no contact, so USAF intercepted and was unable to contact the pilot. The aircraft subsequently crashed in a forest in Virginia.
Hypoxia awareness saves lives.
Half conscious but still very professional.... respect!
in some part that is marker as uninteligible, it says "No possible damage to any part of the aircraft "or crew". (so, he was thinking in survivor mode).
We have lost control but everything is A OK!
That's scary! Thanks for sharing.
Experience is what sounds like saved that pilot. What a G.
When i was in pensacola i went through the hypoxia chamber but i have never experienced it outside that. Wow this guy held on for a long time once he started showing signs. Believe me when it starts you better be one strong dude to do as well as he did. It doesnt take long to just pass out or have no idea what the hell is going on. I dont know how long it would take for a person who passed out to wake back up but my guess is not long enough.
Sounds like HAL as Dr. Floyd deactivates HAL's logic functions.
It still amazes me how calm and collected they were after descending. I mean that's what we strive for, but it's still so contrasting given the odds of what could (should [considering the circumstances and advanced hypoxia]) have happened in this situation.
Even with severe hypoxia he was trying so hard to convey what was happening. You can tell with his slow deliberate words that he desperately wanted to make sure he was clear! Very brave
Something tells me that wasn't deliberate. Especially since pilots still talk in the same speed when declaring an emergency, it's actually better because every second counts when you need to land ASAP.
ATC speaks in the same usual quickness, it was just hard for them to understand the pilot- with poor radio quality and the alarms blaring its no surprise they initially had issues.
@@LickMyMusketBallsYankee We're listening to the same audio that ATC heard on that day so if the audio isn't clear for them than it shouldn't be clear for us either, yet I understood straight away he was suffering from lack of oxygen and the solution was to descend. The alarms are also a large red flag that there's a problem even before the pilot talks. I don't get why the ATC guy didn't pick up on this much sooner. Even a professional pilot mentioned that ATC should have known there was an issue and gone into emergency mode. It took ATC 2 minutes and 50 seconds to realize there was an issue and give the solution.