N591WA - SR22, hypoxic pilot; wife takes over

[mik_ny]

Story: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/26/3656401/wife-takes-over-plane-when-pilot.html
Denver Center recognized hypoxia and suggested lower. The audio as released by the FAA:

Audio: http://www.faa.gov/data_research/accident_incident/2011-05-17/media/N591WA%20redacted.mp3

Denver Center should definitely receive an Archie Award nomination.
Great Lakes Airline pilot of Lakes Air 762, the following aircraft, ... outstanding! Declared an emergency on behalf of the hypoxic SR22 pilot after 27:20 minutes
... to which the slurred reply was "I am not incapacitated!"

In fact, the pilot was still incoherent and judgement remained degraded while suffering from lack of oxygen.
Good outcome with GREAT teamwork!

http://www.faa.gov/data_research/accident_incident/

[FrequencyChange]

Agreed. Excellent work by the controller and chase aircraft. Great audio clip.

[snipper_cr]

-"you need to declare an emergency, this pilot is totally incapacitated"
-"I am NOT totally incapacitated."

While an extremely grave and serious situation, I did chuckle with that one. Again, excellent work by everyone

[alltheway]

How would you find your way around in a cockpit of a SR22 with Garmin when you have never flown yourself?



http://www.flickr.com/photos/txross/3797089596/sizes/l/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/txross/3796271295/sizes/l/in/photostream/

[ysitincoach]

Did the Great Lakes pilot have pax on board?

[Chadan]

...Great audio clip.

Am I the only one who finds this almost impossible to listen to because of the digital artifacts? Maybe it's my Linux-based mp3 player, but this is mostly unintelligible.

[Chadan]

yeah, I think it was my Linux audio system. It's much better under Windows.

[ect76]

I also found it to be very poor quality. I'm running Windows.

EDIT - Plays fine on my system under Firefox and the Quicktime plugin, but barely readable because of digital artifacts playing in Chrome.
If you find it hard to understand, try a different player!

[alltheway]

...Great audio clip.

Am I the only one who finds this almost impossible to listen to because of the digital artifacts? Maybe it's my Linux-based mp3 player, but this is mostly unintelligible.

The digital artifact you reffer to is not digital at all, this is recorded from the speaker near the controller, while the LiveAtc recordings are recorded over the frequency... makes a whole difference

[jportzer]

Good follow-up article here, with photos of the Great Lakes pilot and a profile of the controller:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_18202696

[Robert Larson]

Had the same issue listening with Chrome. A lot of artifacts/clipping. Listening now with Firefox and it's much better. There is still distortion in the recording, but Chrome was doing something extra special that made it in nearly unreadable.

[flyflyfly]

Maybe his wife had enough of flying after this event... N591WA is on sale now (or still is). It comes with a built in oxygen system .
http://www.controller.com/listingsdetail/aircraft-for-sale/CIRRUS-SR22-TURBO-GTS/2006-CIRRUS-SR22-TURBO-GTS/1221273.htm

Meanwhile, I hope the controller got an award for this one.

[aviator_06]

Yea I can hardly understand the comms on chrome....