Haunted plane:
"Stricken United plane captain dies" Associated Press, September 28, 2013
BOISE, Idaho — A United Airlines pilot died after suffering a major heart attack while flying from Houston to Seattle, forcing crew members to make an emergency landing in Idaho while two doctors on board did CPR in the first-class cabin.
Pilot Henry Skillern, 63, of Humble, Texas, was still alive when firefighters and paramedics ran to his aid Thursday night on the Boise Airport tarmack.
He died a short time later while being treated at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, spokeswoman Jennifer Krajnik said.
Skillern had been a pilot for United Airlines for 26 years.
Boise airport spokeswoman Patti Miller said it’s not uncommon for a medical emergency to force a plane to divert to the nearest airport. The Boise airport has had three such diversions in the past two days, she said.
That sounds uncommon to me.
But it’s rare for a serious malady to strike pilots, who undergo regular medical screening to keep their Federal Aviation Administration certification current.
Passengers aboard the Boeing 737-900 flown by Skillern seemed to handle the emergency well, Miller said.
‘‘It seemed like they felt that everything that could be done, was being done,’’ she said. ‘‘The passengers were concerned for him, but everyone was very calm.’’
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