It was Monday June 14, 2010. 
American Airlines
flight 1612, a Boeing 767, was flying from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) with 225 passengers onboard. The flight was running late. It was two hours into the flight and just over two hours to landing. There were seven crew onboard the 767. The five flight attendants onboard were in the middle of service, when something unexpected happened.
- 225 passengers
- 2 flight crew
- 5 flight attendants
Photo: Eliyahu Yosef Parypa | Shutterstock
An unusual incident
The first officer had made numerous trips to the lavatory and was vomiting. He had contracted stomach flu so the captain, Jim Hunter, decided that the first officer should take a jumpseat, and they get someone else to replace him. They checked the passenger list for any off-duty pilots onboard, but unfortunately there were none.
Patti, a flight attendant
Patti DeLuna, 61, was working as a flight attendant onboard that day. She was originally scheduled to be off but was called in to replace another flight attendant who should have been on the trip. Patti had flown with American Airlines for fourteen and a half years. She had been a flight attendant for a total of 32 years and worked previously for Trans World Airlines (TWA) and Flying Tiger Line.
Photo: American Airlines
Surprising background
It is an assumption that flight attendants cannot fly aircraft, but they certainly can help. Patti had a commercial pilots license but hadn’t flown for over 20 years and the last airplane she’d flown was a Cessna. She had 300 flight hours and gained her license in 1970 and was no longer current. She’d learned to fly at the age of 18. Perhaps surprisingly, the purser also had a pilot’s license, but it was many years since she’d flown.
The veteran captain decided that Patti was the best option to replace the first officer, who had moved into the cabin. She was working in the first class galley, when she heard the news, that she would help land the 767.
“I felt terrible for the first officer, but I was so excited. It was way more fun than serving meals from the galley.”
Taking the right seat
Patti entered the cockpit and took the right-hand seat. The captain assigned her to change altimeter settings and she familiarized herself with the cockpit and the PA system. She told him that she was not the panicky type.
“I was the best available [ back-up pilot] they had on the plane. I spent a lot of time in the cockpit looking at the flight deck panel and asking questions. My first question to the captain was, ‘Where are the brakes?’ “
“I was thinking about survival. I was thinking about getting it down the best I could. I don’t feel like a hero. When you work on an airplane, you work as a team. You do whatever you can do to help.”
Why two pilots are better than one
One pilot is capable of landing a 767 and the aircraft with its array of computers can fly and land by itself, but it is not as safe as having two pilots. The workload for two pilots during landing can be heavy, especially descending down into Chicago’s crowded airspace and at touchdown. It is also airline procedure to have two pilots in the cockpit and if one becomes incapacitated, a qualified pilot or flight attendant can help, decreasing the remaining pilot’s workload.
Following procedures
“The captain had me watch for traffic and listen to the radio for our aircraft call number to receive course headings from air-traffic control.”
“Two heads are better than one, even though the captain was so collected and really, really good. What was most important was that we did our jobs in a connected fashion.”
Patti set the aircraft’s instruments and followed the captain’s instructions. She checked the speeds, lowered the landing gear and set the flaps. Patti helped the captain with the landing checklist. No announcements were made in the cabin about the change of pilots and the Boeing 767 landed normally and arrived on time at 16:24. The first officer rested until the aircraft reached the gate. The aircraft was met by paramedics who took him to the nearest hospital and he was later released.
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American said that the flight crew did an outstanding job in handling the situation. A spokesperson for the airline said “the entire incident was handled very well on all accounts.”
“I loved telling my mom, ‘Hey mom, guess what? I was in the cockpit landing!’ That was fun!”
Sources: ABC7 Chicago News, Dallas News, Wwaytv3, SFGate
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