A quick-thinking air traffic controller from Cork, Ireland guided the pilot of a twin-engined Piper that had lost all onboard electrical power, communications and weather radar to a safe landing using only text messages. The pilot of the troubled craft attempted to use his cellphone repeatedly to raise contact with Kerry airport, where he had left, and when unsuccessful he made brief voice contact with air traffic control at Cork. When voice contact was lost the air traffic controller sent text messages to the pilot informing him that he had a radar signal on the aircraft and that Cork would allow them to land. "In this incident the positive and proactive initiative of the ATC controller, who, on realising that mobile audio communication from the pilot was intermittent, quickly switched to texting his instructions instead," said air accident investigator John Hughes. I hope this guy gets a raise! Well done...
Irishtimes.com
Irishtimes.com
