Although the BBC article‘s headline appears to be a tiny bit over-sensationalised, the very idea of a pilot a) suffering a stroke whilst at the controls and surviving, and b) Being at least mostly blind and still surviving is certainly impressive. Jim O’Neill (the pilot) had been flying along normally, when he suffered a stroke. Attempting to land at a nearby (civilian) airfield proved too difficult (not surprising given he could not see the dials in his cockpit, nor very much at all outside the plane!), despite ATC’s best efforts to guide him down. It was then decided that he should be diverted to a local RAF base, where Wing Cdr. Gerrard scrambled into the air, to guide Jim down step-by-step to a runway.
I don’t remember ever speaking to Wing Cdr. Gerrard at RAF Linton-on-Ouse in my old job (I’m guessing he never had major problems with his PC 🙂 ), but I hope he has been bought a few rounds by his colleagues, and I’m sure he’ll be happy to know the Jim’s sight is starting to recover.
Nov 10 2008
Blindly Following
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