On Saturday, the pilot of a private Beach B200 turboprop flying from Aspen to Broomfield, Colorado near Denver became incapacitated. The plane’s navigation and communications were taken over by the Garmin Autoland system, and the computer landed safely, with everyone involved o.k. This is the first known use of system in general aviation, and it saved the lives of everyone on board (and potentially people on the ground, as well).
The King Air 200 series plane, registration N479BR operated by Buffalo River Aviation took off at 1:43 p.m. local time. It squawked 7700 with an emergency at 2 p.m. The pilot reported a pressurization problem (“We lost pressurization.”) before the Autoland sequence played out. And it landed at Broomfield at 2:19 p.m.
It’s incredible watching this unfold, with the “robotic” text‑to‑speech voice repeatedly broadcasting variations of:
“Pilot incapacitation … Emergency auto land in [X] minutes … runway 30 … at KBJC.”
The tower’s “if you can hear me … cleared to land” is basically controllers treating it like an incapacitation scenario but still issuing standard clearances and conditions in case a human pilot is partially responsive.
Six years ago I wrote about the then-new Garmin Autoland system. It senses when a pilot is non-responsive, and it can be easily activated by passengers. It finds the nearest appropriate airport, communicates with air traffic control and lands the plane on its own.
At the time I noted that this seemed like a game changer for worst case scenario events.
- Most aviation accidents in the U.S. involve light aircraft.
- An average of three times a year a private pilot becomes incapacitated while flying.
Here’s the aircraft on the ground:
Just saw a King Air come in and emergency auto land, with an incapacitated pilot, at my home airport. Heard the plane making calls on frequency from 10 miles out. It landed, stopped, and shut down its engines, allowing rescue personnel to off board the pilot.
This appears to be the first real-world activation of Garmin’s Emergency Autoland, an end‑to‑end autonomy package intended to get you from “something is badly wrong” to “stopped on a runway,” without pilot action.
- It evaluates runway suitability and approach availability, weather and terrain, as well as fuel and selects the best nearby airport-runway combination.
- The system assumes control of lateral and vertical path speed/energy management; gears and flaps; etc.
- It broadcasts to air traffic control and nearby aircraft using automated radio calls, and it provides simple passenger instructions (seatbelts, keep clear of controls, etc.).
- Then it lands, brings the aircraft to a stop, and shuts down the engines so first responders and occupants can approach/egress safely.
Clearly this strengthens the case for automation as a last-resort safety layer. I’ll leave it to commenters to discuss the role of AI in commercial cockpits. There will clearly come a time when AI is superior to a human co-pilot.
We should also be working to a standard with air traffic control and autoland messaging and priority handling, with a defined phrase set and data link acknowledgements so ATC can signal things like “runway closed, use alternate.” (I have not seen Garmin claim Autoland consumes real-time NOTAM closures.) The engineers of this system are clearly heroes with real lives saved now.
50% of men think they could land a plane if the pilot becomes incapacitated. I trust the AI far more.
Meanwhile, if you ever find yourself going full Ted Striker on a commercial aircraft and you need help, get on 121.5 (Guard) and declare an emergency. It’s widely monitored, though coverage is line-of-sight, so on the outside chance you don’t raise you might need to keep trying nearby tower and approach frequencies. Hopefully air traffic control has someone or can identify an instructor with familiarity on your aircraft to help talk you down.
Many airliners can autoland, but it depends on the aircraft and CAT II/III authorization plus a suitable ILS/GLS runway. Someone on the ground needs to walk you through entering relevant data into the flight management system and configure the system. And hope you’re not facing significant crosswinds. No doubt pilots among my readers will have better advice to offer.
Technology can be a wonderful supplement to human activity.
Too bad there’s not anything out there that would alert a user when a word they typed was spelled incorrectly. That’s one particular technology that Gary would benefit from!!
Agree that this seems like a good advancement for private planes. this seems like an “ideal” scenario where weather conditions weren’t a factor.
I have never taken flight training, but I know a few commercial pilots. I have no such wild belief that, without very good guidance from someone on the ground, I could land a small aircraft let alone landing a jetliner.
The his has to be the coolest thing I have ever seen.
Full Ted Striker? Really fun movie. There was a time when I might have subbed for that Autopilot, but my ego is not as inflated as it was, and I quit smoking!
I would totally trust AI. Should be used for virtually all take offs, flying and landing, even if pilot says he’s 100% capable.