‘Props’ to air hero
Tourist landed plane in flip-flops
The hero passenger who miraculously landed a plane on his own has been identified as a 39-yearold Florida man armed with nothing but a pair of flip-flops and a background in interior design.
The man, identified by family as Darren Harrison, was headed home to Lakeland after a fishing trip in the Bahamas Tuesday afternoon when the pilot flying the Cessna Grand Caravan suddenly became “incapacitated” and “incoherent.”
The married father-to-be, who’s currently a vice president at Sunshine Interiors, sprang into action and radioed for help.
“I’ve got a serious situation here about my pilot,” the passenger-turned-airman is heard saying onboard the flight, according to audio posted by LiveATC.net.
“He’s incoherent. No idea how to fly the airplane but I’m maintaining 9,100.”
Harrison declined interviews with local media, but his cousin, Matthew Harrison, told The Post he was shocked to learn his relative was behind the heroic landing.
“I was like, ‘Wait, that’s my cousin?’ ” Matthew, 37, said by phone. “That was insane. I’m impressed too, he was so calm. I’ve never known him to be that calm before.”
Harrison’s uncle, Glenn Harrison, said his nephew knows how to keep it together during tense moments.
“I know he was probably scared to death, but it doesn’t surprise me him doing what he did,” Glenn told The Post by phone.
“He’s pretty good about keeping his cool. It doesn’t surprise me he kept his composure, followed directions and everything turned out great.”
Robert Morgan, the air-traffic controller and part-time flight instructor who coached Harrison through the flight and landing, told the “Today” show the unlikely pilot was his “best student ever.”
“The pilot was slumped over on the controls and then they pushed him back, they get him out of his seat and then they had to get on the controls and pull back the plane so that it would climb up out of the dive that it was in,” Morgan told the outlet.
He did his best to keep Harrison calm as he explained how to slow down the plane and start preparing for a landing.
“You look great. You’re a little fast. What I want you to do is grab the throttle, just pull that back a little bit because we need you to be slowed down,” Morgan recalled saying.
The plane briefly disappeared from radar but within 10 seconds, Harrison radioed Morgan and told him he was on the ground at Palm Beach International Airport.
Glenda Watson, whose husband, Christopher, works for Harrison, said her hubby told her all about it when he got home from work Wednesday.
“He said, ‘Boss man had to land a plane. He never flew a plane in his life,’ ” Watson told The Post.
“I think he caught everybody by surprise, but he saved his life and whoever else was aboard.”
She said Harrison even went into the office on Wednesday after the heart-racing ordeal but left early in the day.
“I don’t blame him, I’d leave early too to go hold my wife,” said Watson.
“I bet you he won’t be going fishing for a little minute.”