Plane with dead pilot steered to safety

A passenger of a private plane managed to bring down the plane safely on waters near a Batangas beach yesterday after the pilot died of a heart attack, aviation officials said.

The passenger turned instant pilot, Victor Consunji, received instructions over the plane's radio from the pilot of a passing Asian Spirit plane on how to operate the instruments of the distressed Cessna 206 plane.

"It's as if it happened in the movies," said Rolando Luna, executive director of the Air Transportation Office (ATO). "But it was a question of survival, and somebody had to fly the plane."

The mid-air suspense thriller occurred after Capt. Perfecto Maglinte suffered a heart attack while on a flight bound for Manila from Caticlan, Aklan, with Consuji with passegers along with two others identified only as E. Gaskel, and E. Victoriano. Their exact location at the time was 50 miles southwest of Manila.

The "pilotless" aircraft, owned by M&S Inc., spun down from an altitude of 3,000 feet, prompting Consuji to take control in the cockpit and try to fly the single-engine plane.

As Consuji tried to radio Manila air controllers, the conversation was overheard on emergency frequency by Asian Spirit's Capt. Carlos Alvarez, who then tried to guide the Cessna.

Consuji, who had no basic knowledge on flying planes, managed to stay cool and followed the instructions of Alvarez, whose plane was also flying over Batangas province at the time.

The novice pilot was able to correct the spinning of the plane and eventually ditch the aircraft off Laiya beach in Batangas. All three passengers survived with just minor body bruises.

Luna said that the three passengers of the ill-fated aircraft were scheduled to be flown to Manila late yesterday afternoon.

The ATO was also looking into the medical records of Maglinte, who was 59, to determine if he had undergone the regular medical check-up for pilots. --