Captain of CO061 (BRU to EWR) of this morning died in flight

[tolipanebas]

Plane hasn't even landed in EWR, but the news is already spreading...

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?secti ... id=6871701

[Coppelia]

My question may appear silly, but... why didnt' they divert asap ?

[TCAS]

My question may appear silly, but... why didnt' they divert asap ?

Diversion over the Atlantic ?

[tolipanebas]

Where too?

The captain may have died deep into the flight, well over the ocean...

Since there is no real urgency any longer (the poor guy sadly passed away), there's no need to go off-route and land asap somewhere in the arctic regions at a small emergency airport; better just continue to the planned destination (and well know home-base) while causing minimal disruption to everybody on the plane.

[Coppelia]

Ok my excuses, I thought the time of the link was in UTC but guess it is in US/EWR local time.

So, no safety problems for a long haul flight to be carried on with just 2 copilots ?

Sad story for the rest

[sdbelgium]

Reg was N78004. Two F/Os are now flying the plane into EWR. Landing is scheduled in about five minutes... May he R.I.P. As someone said on the a.net thread: "At least he passed away while doing something he loved to do" (probably).

[TCAS]

Sixty One landed 11:35AM EDT (see: FlightAware)

[LX-LGX]

with all respect for the pilot's family:

now live on CNN TV and Foxnews online:

http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestre ... l?chanId=7

[SabenaForever]

May he rest in peace!!

[Bralo20]

Where too?

The captain may have died deep into the flight, well over the ocean...

Since there is no real urgency any longer (the poor guy sadly passed away), there's no need to go off-route and land asap somewhere in the arctic regions at a small emergency airport; better just continue to the planned destination (and well know home-base) while causing minimal disruption to everybody on the plane.

Correct. Since the news was released that the pilot effectively "died" during the flight we can assume there was at least one doctor on board who declared the pilot dead. AFAIK only a doctor can declare somebody as deceased. Since this was the case the emergency is actually gone and the plane can continue the route it was flying. They will get a priortity landing before other planes when they actually arrive but that's it. No emergency landing, no diversion, just a regular landing by the 2 other pilots on board.

It would have probably been different when there was no doctor on board. Since only a doctor (unless the rules in the USA are different) can declare sombody dead there will be actually an inflight emergency (even if the person is actually dead) and on such case I can assume a diversion is necessary.

[LX-LGX]

Where too?

The captain may have died deep into the flight, well over the ocean...

Since there is no real urgency any longer (the poor guy sadly passed away), there's no need to go off-route and land asap somewhere in the arctic regions at a small emergency airport; better just continue to the planned destination (and well know home-base) while causing minimal disruption to everybody on the plane.

Correct. Since the news was released that the pilot effectively "died" during the flight we can assume there was at least one doctor on board who declared the pilot dead. AFAIK only a doctor can declare somebody as deceased. Since this was the case the emergency is actually gone and the plane can continue the route it was flying. They will get a priortity landing before other planes when they actually arrive but that's it. No emergency landing, no diversion, just a regular landing by the 2 other pilots on board.

It would have probably been different when there was no doctor on board. Since only a doctor (unless the rules in the USA are different) can declare sombody dead there will be actually an inflight emergency (even if the person is actually dead) and on such case I can assume a diversion is necessary.

Indeed. There was a public call in the cabin, and "a few doctors" went to the cockpit. One of them was the Belgian radiologist Julien Struyven. He used the onboard cardiac defibrillator, but it failed. His conclusion was heart attack.

Source for this info:
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail ... =GPC2BKD2B