Plan B Forum

A PASSENGER plane bounced off the runway after its pilot’s artificial arm became detached as he was coming in to land in gusty conditions.

The incident occurred at Belfast City Airport and involved a Dash 8 aircraft on a Flybe flight from Birmingham with 47 passengers on board. According to CNN, Britain’s air accident investigation branch said in a report released yesterday that the pilot’s prosthetic limb became detached as he performed a ‘‘flare manoeuvre’’, in which the nose of a plane is raised before landing, earlier this year.

“As he made the flare manoeuvre his prosthetic limb became detached from the yoke clamp, depriving him of control of the aircraft,” the report said.

The Daily Telegraph said the 46year-old captain considered asking the co-pilot to take control but concluded that, given the time available and the challenging conditions, his best course of action was to move his right hand from the throttles and on to the attitude controls. No one was hurt and the plane was not damaged. — Staff reporter

Armless pilot lands safely

Fellow traveller Sheila Matthews said she was disgusted by the attitude of many other plane users. She angrily told us, “I think it’s terrible that in this day and age people would rather have a one-armed man than a woman fly their plane. We are just as capable of safely flying these planes as any man, able-bodied or not.”

“Which would I choose? Oh, the man, obviously.”