Position: CYEG (Edmonton); three down and locked/flaps fullWeather conditions: Light rain, calm winds, 15 degrees C., viz 5 miles.
Passengers on board: 122
Time: 0029 hrs. local
2335 hrs...
It has been one of those nights. My co-pilot, a 29 year old male, became violently ill about 45 minutes after eating his crewmeal. Luckily, I did not eat mine because I purchased a sandwich from an airport vendor before take-off. Even though my crewmeal was different, they came from the same catering company. The co-pilot has made repeated trips to the forward lav... I will spare the details. Thankfully, my cabin crew consists of three hardened air-combat veterans with more than 75 years of combined seniority. In the old days we referred to them as senior sky mommas, but that term is politically incorrect today. The aforementioned three still like pilots, which in itself is miraculous. For the past 90 minutes, they have been coordinating the co-pilot's lav visits. The lead flight attendant gave him some Imodium a few minutes ago. We are hoping that will calm him down for the approach and landing.
2345 hrs...
While the co-pilot is in the forward lav, I ask the lead flight attendant if there are any deadheading company pilots, just in case. None. Of course not. The Canadian ATC controller clears us to descend to 30,000 feet for crossing traffic. I write the altitude on a piece of scrap paper; set the altitude into the auto-pilot, look away for a second, then double check 3-0-0-0-0. Yep, that will do it; push the descend button and down we go. When the non-flying pilot is out of the flight deck, caution is the name of the game.
Midnight...
The co-pilot is hanging in there. He is constantly apologizing for being sick. I ask him why he is apologizing. His skin is clammy and he looks miserable... Poor kid. ATC clears us for the descent into CYEG about 100 miles south of the airport. The weather is marginal visual flight rules. Due to the condition of the co-pilot, I am planning an instrument approach to be on the safe side.
0010 hrs...
"Dave, I'm sorry, but I've got to go back again." I looked at the altimeter- 20,000 feet and descending. I tell him, "No problem. Do you think you can be here for the approach?" He assured me he would not be long. Two of the flight attendants, once again, whisked him to the forward lav. He was apologizing to them as he went back. The lead flight attendant plops down in his seat laughing. She says, "That poor kid. He is puking his guts out." I cannot help but to remember the scene in the movie Airplane where the captain looks down at his crewmeal on the cockpit floor when he finds out that the fish is making everyone sick.
0020 hrs... 12,000 feet above the ground...
The co-pilot is still in the lav and Fi-Fi is not far from the IAF (initial approach fix). My lead flight attendant is sitting in the co-pilot's seat. I ask her to read me the pre-approach checklist. If the co-pilot does not come back to the flight deck shortly, I will be forced to declare an emergency. Not because of operational considerations, but from administrative demands; situation out of the ordinary, i.e., a paper trail of considerable length.
0025 hrs... 7,000 feet above the ground...
My young co-pilot is back in his seat, strapped in and apologizing. I tell him not to worry about it; everything is cool. I reach over my head and push three buttons which activate the forward shields (engine and wing anti-icing). Fi-Fi's flight-control computers have switched to the approach mode and are trading ones and zeros at an increased tempo. The co-pilot looks as if he is thinking about puking. I tell him to use the garbage bag, it will save a lot of paperwork. He assures me he can make it to the gate.
0029 hrs... FAF (final approach altitude verification fix)...
Gear down, flaps full, engines stabilized, landing checklist complete and cleared to land CYEG. I ask the co-pilot, "You gonna make it?" He replies,"Yeah, it comes in waves but I'm OK for now." At a thousand feet we see the approach lights; the outside air temperature is now above freezing; forward shields OFF. The runway lights come into view at 800 feet. The co-pilot is visibly relieved; bed time soon.
0038 hrs... crossed light wands at the gate...
Parking brake SET, fuel cut-off switches OFF. OK, we made it to the gate. The co-pilot has survived the crewmeal, thus far no paper trail required.
0055 hrs... hotel van...
The co-pilot is in the men's room dry heaving while we wait in the hotel van. The lead flight attendant suggests we put him in the back row of seats with a trash bag for the ride to the hotel. Sounds reasonable to me. I might have to take him to the hospital this morning, anyway.
0130 hrs... hotel...
We get the co-pilot to his room and tell him if he needs to go to the hospital, it is mandatory that one of us go with him, preferably the captain, as per the ops manual. He says he will be OK after he gets some shut-eye. Then he says he will never, ever eat another crewmeal. Ever...
Roger that. Life on the Line continues...
41 comments:
i thought I was watching the movie airplane all over again....and, oh no....prepare for this Dave: Now i have a mental picture of you (after years of reading your blog) as the captain in the movie! (What was his name? Victor, or Roger?) I am sure you are MUCH younger and better looking though!
Great Insight into the life of "flying the line", by the way!
It's a terrible feeling to not have control over your own body. What a rough night!
Good story Dave.
Thanks again Dave! Keep 'em flying!
There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
Prepare for countless "Airplane!" quotes, Dave. ;-)
Great story, BTW. Out of curiosity is it FAA rules or company SOP's that would require you to declare an emergency as a result of being forced to make the approach/landing without your copilot on the flight deck?
Dave,
Poor guy. I feel for him. I was in a sailboat race (Santa Barbara to King Harbor) and once outside of the Channel Islands, literally everybody but me starts detonating at both ends.
The biggest boat I've ever helmed until then was an Ericson 27' and now I'm helming a 60 footer. The hard part was getting the sails down and into the slip.
BeachBumBill
when i was on the 737, one of my friend, an FO, got into this mess. but it was the captain who was incapacitated. his face became swollen and he cant speak. the FO took full control, declare emergency, and landed the aircraft safely. he became a hero. u're a hero too Capt Dave.
I've always wondered what I'd do in the situation of not having the FO (or captain when I was in the other seat) back in time to fly the approach. No sense in holding until they are back really as getting on the ground is in everybody's best interest. Either way, I'm glad he held it together long enough to get to the gate. Just another reason not to eat crew meals.
Is it an FAA requirement that the pilot and fo eat different meals so you don't have both crewmembers with the same issue?
Dave, you may not think of your blog this way, but it's "educational."
I'm a retired teacher and board of ed member, so the stuff I write about may not interest you or your readers, but I added you to my blogroll in hopes that teachers and their students would visit for the "inside story" on commercial piloting.
No reciprocation is expected. I do thank you for the opportunity to experience your world!
Hmmm. I'm coming back across the pond tomorrow and, after all the great food in Italy, I really *should* go on a fast. Yeah, think I'll skip those on-board meals tomorrow.
Some of us in the back can get pretty jaded by the boring rides and forget that what we're doing 7 miles or so up in the air is *not* the norm, that this is quite extraordinary.
Thanks for the interesting ride but, more to the point, thanks especially for the boring ones.
Very interesting experiene! It is one of the reasons for having two pilots onboard!
My sympathies to your co-pilot! We've all been there. Nicely done job handling it to you and your FAs.
You also made me think about what I'd do as a single engine solo pilot! Fortunately, I have a window...
What if you had both become sick? What then??
Dave,
I want to send you some photos to post that should be of interest to fellow readers.
Yesterday (16/10/08 - I'm a Brit!) was the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in the UK, by one Col. Sam Cody at Farnborough, Hampshire. Cody was a US citizen, and is buried here in Hampshire.
There was a memorial flypast by several veteran aircraft, and I managed to get a few good 'snaps'.
Please let me know where I can email them.
To do this without the e-vermin ruining everything I have set up a disposable email address using http:www.spamgourmet.com, which is ford.prefect.cautious@xoxy.net. If you do not already use this excellent spam-busting service now is a good time to start. Please email me at that address, and I will send you the pics - including what is probably the second to last ever flight of the iconic Avro Vulcan (it flies back home tomorrow - another casualty of the current times).
Yours
Richard
Aww.. I can sympathize with your FO's dilemma. Being in scheduling I have heard many crew meal encounters from our guys. They are not pretty. I hope he is much better!
I agree! That is one of worst feelings not being able to control your body. I can't imagine how embarrassed he was, but it wasn't his fault.
Fun post!
I laughed, I cried, I empathized, I had bad memories.
As usual, this post was pure awsomeness.
I have never got any physical problems during flight, not even a throwup. But the day when that will come, Í hope that I have someone else in my cockpit. Someone that can handle it.
I have never flown a plane in a multicrew environment, so I am curious; is it difficult to handle ha Boeing/Airbus on your own during an standard IFR flight? What exceptions from the normal operating procedures are required?
//Pontus
my.opera.com/pontuspilot
G'day Dave, great blog as usual. The interesting thing is that, in this country at least (Australia) Immodium is on the banned list. So in theory here he would have been off the case after he took the Immodium.
Thanks for the blog = Mike
Great blog. Reminds me of the time I got appendicitis 2 hours out of Seattle. Nearly declared but made it with an F/O on his 2nd trip. I'll be sure and blog about it for you.
What are the rules about an incapacitated FO or Captain? The FO described here did not sound up to handling his half of an emergency landing.
Dave,
How do you get around NTSB Rule 830
The operator of any civil aircraft, or any public aircraft not operated by the Armed Forces or an intelligence agency of the United States, or any foreign aircraft shall immediately, and by the most expeditious means available, notify the nearest National Transportation Safety Board (Board) field office1 when:
1 The Board field offices are listed under U.S. Government in the telephone directories of the following cities: Anchorage, AK, Atlanta, GA, West Chicago, IL, Denver, CO, Arlington, TX, Gardena (Los Angeles), CA, Miami, FL, Parsippany, NJ (metropolitan New York, NY), Seattle, WA, and Washington, DC.
(a) An aircraft accident or any of the following listed incidents occur:
(1) Flight control system malfunction or failure;
(2) Inability of any required flight crewmember to perform normal flight duties as a result of injury or illness;
(3) Failure of structural components of a turbine engine excluding compressor and turbine blades and vanes;
(4) In-flight fire; or
(5) Aircraft collide in flight
Re: NTSB Rule 530...
I suppsoe someone always has to try and play gotcha on these boards. However, who's to say he didn't " immediately, and by the most expeditious means available, notify the nearest National Transportation Safety Board (Board) field office"
after he landed? You don't notify them from the air.
At my airline we fill out a CIOR (crew irregular ops report) detailing what happened, and probably would also file a NASA ASRS report as well.
re: "What are the rules about an incapacitated FO or Captain? The FO described here did not sound up to handling his half of an emergency landing."
You'll note he didn't have to declare an emergency. Thus, no "emergency landing".
Dave great story and thanks for sharing. I presume the kid was ok the next day?
anonymous 750- what a comment! How did I get around NTSB rule 530? Are you kidding me? Please...
Dave said that he avoided major paperwork, and thus I think the anonymous poster's question is valid, though he may not have posed it in the most polite way. Note that the rule says that the report must be filed if the "required flight crewmember" is unable "to perform normal flight duties." A possible interpretation is that during the times the first officer was away, the rules allowed him to be away; it's only on the final approach that two crew members were formally required, and the F/O was no longer incapacitated at that point. But clearly we don't know that Dave didn't actually file the above-mentioned report, just that he didn't declare an emergency...which presumably would have been even *MORE* paperwork.
It would be interesting to know exactly what paperwork is required in this situation. As a PPL student in Australia I don't think I've come across this sort of thing yet in my studies, and maybe it doesn't apply to private flight anyway...
What is up with all these "wanna be cops" policing around the blogger community???? I am sure the local grocery store is hiring security guards, where you'd do more good! lol
You know, I admit that I don't know how onerous it would have been, but I think I would have taken one for the team and declared the emergency. That way I could make sure it was known at the highest levels of the company that the crew meals being supplied had poor enough quality control to incapacitate a pilot. The name of that caterer would have been in my report, underlined twice.
I was at a company once that was contractually obliged to supply crew meals on scheduled flights when the duty day was over a certain duration. The food was utterly unpalatable and the pilots never ate it, just took it on board as defence against possible hijackers, or something. The pilots complained and complained, but pilots always whine, and management paid no attention.
Then one day a member of senior management was jumpseating, and confessed to being hungry. The captain volunteered his lunch. The caterer was changed immediately.
(I have a recalcitrant C-key and my first attempt to type that last sentence resulted in a rather more severe penalty for the caterer!)
P.S. Here's another funny crew meal story.
It might not have been the crew meal. "...About 45 minutes after eating his crewmeal..." is a little on the fast side for most kinds of food poisoning. Google "food poisoning onset". I'd be more suspicious of other things eaten in the last day or so.
Nice job Dave. You've shown the difference between somebody who is Captain and those who inspire to be someday. You flew the airplane as single pilot and handled all the other factors around you...including using an FA as a checklist reader and thinking about the dreaded paperwork that may be involved.
I will use this example for my jaded copilots who think that moving to the left seat is just a matter of seniority.
The only paper trail was the one to the forward lav! LOL
G`day Dave, yeah i have to agree with anonymous 2:39, usually when food makes you crook, its about 4 to 8 hrs before it really starts to take effect, but obviously you were better to er on the side of caution by not eating any of the food yourself.
I had a chicken burger several months back which tasted a bit sus, but i was so hungry i ate it anyway, and about 6 hrs later, my stomach had reached the windshear stage, and stayed that way for about 6 hrs, but thankfully i didnt have the controls of an A320 to worry about! Great post thanks. Ben
MCO Craig here Dave.. don't orry about those pinheads please.. I would hate to see you stop writing because of a few A-holes... You wrote a really great story once again.. I appreciate the view that only you are able to supply through your words.. I have not read many other aviation writers that do it better..
By the way for those that might wonder about this topic and the FAA..Each company has its FAA approved procedures in there GOM that spell out the who reports, the when its reported type information.. many times the FAA allows up to 10 days to report incidents.. BUt I degress.. please folks, lets not beat Dave to death here.. if your critical about his posting.. please just go somewhere else and nit-pick over there..
Some forms of food poisoning that do have rapid onset:
"Symptoms indicating the onset of Staph aureus food poisoning are usually rapid, acute, and dramatic. Symptoms can appear as soon as 30 minutes after eating the offending food and can last anywhere from hours to days" (Health Dept. of Western Australia).
The Bacillus cereus toxin can cause symptoms within 0.5 to 6 hrs after consumption of contaminated foods. See US FDA "Bad Bug Book".
This puts the crew meal back on the "uh-oh" list.
Great post, Dave!
My comment's on Dec 2005 where I had to stop my initial read - an age/eyesight thing.
Or how about Dana Andrews stepping up from the passenger ranks with Linda Darnell in the right seat. Both pilots got sick. He's just an old Spit pilot but, not to worry, good old Sterling Hayden, his ex C.O., gives him dual over the radio and, as they say in the FAA, safety was never compromised.
Anonymous 7:50 - The FO went to the bathroom a few times, and was in his seat during the landing. How does that rise to the definition of incapacitated?? And I'm sure if Dave DFO'd, he'd land the airplane even if he had to concurrently load his pants.
= = =
Aviatrix Oct 21 8:13 talks about feeding reality to senior management - and things were changed once they had a clue.
I had a parallel in my career... overloaded [mainframe] computer for email services, and the entire company was complaining about response time, and the executives did not understand. I dug a little deeper, and found out that the system was configured to give a higher priority to the executives - which was promptly undone. They got real-world response time, and the problem got fixed. That higher priority, probably well-intentioned by some brown-nosing middle manager, withheld information from management.
On a parallel story, the big-wigs also got the fanciest phones, with many buttons, big displays, multiple lines. Most common phrase yelled out the door: hey Marjorie, how do I transfer a call again? I never did get the fancy $1000 phones off their desks, even though they only knew how to dial 9 for an outside line.
Dave, in that case could you call anyone with a pilots certificate?
"It might not have been the crew meal. '...About 45 minutes after eating his crewmeal...' is a little on the fast side for most kinds of food poisoning."
Last week, my wife ate a quesadilla from Taco Bell. Within 10 minutes she was puking her guts out at her job and taking sick leave shortly thereafter. Trust me: it can hit you quickly.
Funny that almost no one was concerned about the passengers food. We eat that garbage all the time. And when we get sick - we have to wait in line with everyone else who ate the same stuff, etc.
Inflight meals from LSG/SkyChefs ?
I hope NOT !
A retired Lufthansa Quality Mgr. :-)
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