Woman with No Training Lands Plane After Pilot Husband Suffers Heart Attack in the Air

Mar. 15, 2025

Eliot Alper.Photo:facebook

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A woman with no formal pilot training landed a small plane in Bakersfield, Calif., after her pilot husband suffered a heart attack mid-flight on Friday, Oct. 4, according to a Federal Aviation Administrationnews release.

Eliot Alper, 78, was piloting a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 from Henderson, Nev., to Monterey, Calif., when he had a medical emergency beside his wife and sole passenger, Yvonne Kinane-Wells, 69, theLos Angeles Timesreported.Alper, who married Kinane-Wells in February, was rushed to the hospital, where he later died, his real estate office confirmed to theLas Vegas Review-Journalon Monday, Oct. 7.

Eliot Alper.facebook

In additional audio PEOPLE obtained fromLiveATC.net, recorded controllers and pilots monitoring the plane ensured Kinane-Wells’ radio was clear for emergency communication. A “passenger in the cockpit trying to figure out how to fly,” one controller says of Kinane-Wells and notes of the incapacitated pilot.

She successfully landed the aircraft at 1:40 p.m. Then, upon landing, emergency vehicles chased the plane down the 11,000-foot runway until Kinane-Wells was able to stop the aircraft.

Ron Brewster, director of airports for Kern County, told Inside Edition that this incident, to his knowledge, is “unprecedented,” adding that he’s “never seen it in [his] entire career.”

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are conducting an investigation.

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Representatives for the FAA and the NTSB did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Wednesday.

source: people.com