Has an untrained person ever landed a plane?

In 2013, a 77 year-old man who had never flown before landed a plane. Just last year, air traffic controllers guided a no-experience passenger safely to earth after she radioed them with a distress call. But smaller planes are way easier to fly than jets, and these are the rare success stories.



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While no passenger or non-experienced pilot has ever successfully landed a commercial plane, occasionally someone without experience manages to land a smaller plane.

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A YouGov study released in January backs this up: One in three Americans believe they could safely land a passenger airplane. Among men, that percentage jumps to 46. And indeed, some average Joes have in fact recently pulled this off.

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Virtually anyone can learn to fly—a lot depends on what kind of flying you want to do. If you keep it simple, and fly a basic airplane for your own enjoyment, as a sport pilot or private pilot, the cost doesn't have to be that much—and you can pay for the training as you go.

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And—the closest thing we've seen to the number we're after—18 percent of Americans said they had never flown in their life, meaning that 82 percent had.

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The Indicated Airspeed (IAS) is about the same, regardless of weight, however a lower weight allows for higher cruise altitudes and therefore higher True Airspeed (TAS - true airspeed is the actual speed of the aircraft in a body of air and increases about 2% per 1000 feet higher altitude at any constant indicated ...

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“I'd say the most likely scenario would be a semi-controlled crash,” an airline pilot tells GQ.

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Landing a plane is generally considered to be more difficult than taking off. This is because the pilot has to slow the plane down to a safe landing speed while also keeping it aligned with the runway. If the pilot does not do this correctly, the plane could crash.

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All large commercial jets can land automatically, but still with plenty of pilot involvement. So-called autoland systems are a part of aircraft autopilots. All large modern jets are equipped with such systems, which can automatically land the aircraft, albeit under careful supervision from the pilots themselves.

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Flight permits are permits or permission required by an aircraft to overfly, land or make a technical stop in any country's airspace. All countries have their own regulations regarding the issuance of flight permits as there is generally a payment involved.

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