FORT MYERS, Fla., April 13 (UPI) -- A passenger landed a plane at a Fort Myers, Fla., airport after the pilot of the private plane died while in flight, officials said.
Working with the passenger to land the Beechcraft King Air 55 twin-engine plane Sunday were three air traffic controllers and a pilot from Connecticut relaying cockpit instructions, the Naples (Fla.) Daily News reported Monday.
Steven Wallace, a representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association in Miami, said the sequence of events began as the pilot was climbing to 10,000 feet.
"Our controller who was working the afternoon rush tried to acknowledge him and give him climbing instructions and he never responded to us," Wallace told the newspaper.
Eventually, another voice came on the radio from the twin-engine plane, saying the pilot was incapacitated and the plane was climbing on auto-pilot, the Daily News reported. The passenger, one of five people on board, was also a pilot but not certified to fly a King Air.
The air traffic controllers worked with the passenger to disengage the plane's auto-pilot and safely land at Southwest Florida International Airport in the Fort Myers area.
The Daily News said a cause of death for the pilot wasn't released.
The plane was traveling to Jackson, Miss.
