Plane divers after co-pilot passes out

A United Airlines flight was diverted to the Albuquerque worldwide Sunport Tuesday morning after the plane’s first officer lost consciousness.

A co-pilot on a United Airlines flight en route to San Francisco fell unconscious and the plane landed safely in New Mexico.

Air-traffic controllers were alerted around 8 a.m. that the plane would be landing due to a medical condition of an officer who was second in command.

Flight 1614 landed safely in Albuquerque and the passengers were offloaded.

American Airlines have named Michael Johnston as the pilot who died midway through a Phoenix- to-Boston flight. All American Airlines said in a publicly released statement was that Captain Johnson had fallen ill while piloting the flight.

In one remarkable case in 2009, a 60-year-old Continental Airlines pilot died at the controls three hours into an eight-hour flight from Belgium to Newark, airline officials said at the time.

Medical emergencies are rare, but hardly unprecedented in commercial flights. The flight finally arrived at Logan Airport shortly after noon. “Request handling for runway, one-zero landing”. The Federal Aviation Administration requires two crew members in the cockpit at all times for just such an emergency.

Cacciola and a few other passengers took pictures of a rainbow that formed while the pilot’s body was removed from the plane in Syracuse.

“I think it would make no difference if it was the pilot or the co-pilot that was incapacitated”, said John Nance, aviation consultant for ABC News.