Co-pilot suffered seizures during flight

A passenger plane avoided a “potentially hazardous” turn of events when one of the pilots suffered a mid-air seizure while at the controls.

The Inverness to Jersey Flybe plane had 43 passengers and four crew members on board when the drama unfolded.

According to an accident report the co-pilot was flying the aircraft when he suffered a seizure at 11.15am on August 5 last year.

The aircraft commander was carrying out a monitoring role when he noticed “the co-pilot was shaking, his hands and arms were tensed and that he was leaning back in his seat with his head and eyes looking up towards the ceiling.”

During the seizures the

“She found the co-pilot grey in the face”

co-pilot went rigid and his lips turned blue and he made “inadvertent rudder inputs” causing the autopilot (AP) to disconnect.

After failing to get a response from the incapacitated co-pilot, the commander tried to alert a female senior cabin crew member (SCCM) at the rear of the cabin who immediately went to the cockpit.

When she entered she found the co-pilot “grey in the face, had blue lips and a rigid body but was still breathing”.

She struggled to restrain her ill colleague and received a minor injury and bruising when she fell in the cabin during the incident.

The plane was given clearance to make an emergency landing at Manchester Airport.

The aircraft commander and a senior member of the cabin crew were both commended for the “safe and successful outcome to what was, potentially, a hazardous incident.”