Envoy Air Pilot Who Was Incapacitated Mid-flight Passed Away Nov 22, 2022
Envoy Air, a regional carrier and subsidiary of American Airlines, confirmed Tuesday that a pilot who suffered a medical emergency during a flight has died. The flight departed Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Saturday and returned shortly after takeoff due to the captain reportedly being incapacitated.
Crisis in air
While Envoy has not commented on the cause of the medical emergency, Captain Ric Wilson, Vice President of Flight Operations at the airline, said in a message to employees that the pilot was a captain in training.
The carrier said in a statement,
“Despite heroic efforts by those on board and first responders on the ground, our colleague passed away at the hospital. We’re deeply saddened and are doing all we can to support his family and our colleagues at this time.”
The incident played out
Envoy Air flight 3556 was bound for John Glenn Columbus International Airport and operated by N269NN, an Embraer E175. According to data from Flight Aware, the plane departed on runway 28R and flew on a path north of the airport before turning back towards the airport to land.
According to an archive of audio recordings on ATCLive, another pilot can be heard informing ATC of the incident.
“We need to return. Captain is incapacitated... he’s knocked out. We’re going to need paramedics.”
ATC then advised the pilot to start descending and to reposition the aircraft for arrival on runway 28C. On the ground, the pilot informed ATC that he would be able to get the plane off the runway onto a taxiway, but would need to stop again to move the captain off his seat in order to get the aircraft to gate L23.
Other Pilot Incapacitation Incidents
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