A pilot became incapacitated on Southwest flight 568 from Las Vegas to Reno on April 8. That’s just a 346 mile flight. They returned to Vegas because the left seat’s heads up display (‘HUD’) struck the captain.
Shortly after departure, the first officer told Las Vegas Departure there was “a little bit of a captain incapacitation,” and then explained: “the HUD came down and hit him on the head on the takeoff roll.” The crew asked for emergency services on return – but didn’t declare an emergency themselves, asking for medical priority – but air traffic control declared it on their end.
They vectored the plane back in, and the co-pilot actually asked for a longer vector to have time to coordinate with dispatch.
After landing, ground control asked what caused the head injury, and the pilot explained that the captain-side HUD “came down during the takeoff roll and smacked him pretty hard on the head,” made him “see a few stars,” and that he had “started throwing up.”
The Boeing 737-700 spent an hour and a half on the ground and made it to Reno two hours late.
Here’s air traffic control:
LAS Tower: Southwest 568, fly heading 175, runway 26 Right, cleared for takeoff.
Southwest 568: Fly heading 175, runway 26 Right, cleared for takeoff, Southwest 568. Thank you.
LAS Tower: Contact Departure, [frequency unclear].
Southwest 568: Departure, Southwest 568.
LAS Departure: Southwest 568, go ahead.
Southwest 568: Yeah, just a little bit of a captain incapacitation here. We’d like to return.
LAS Departure: Southwest 568, fly heading 170, maintain 7,000.
Southwest 568: 7,000 and heading 170, Southwest 568.
LAS Departure: Do you need to declare?
Southwest 568: No, we’ll just take medical priority.
Southwest 568: The HUD came down and hit him on the head on the takeoff roll. He’d like EMS when we return, Southwest 568.
LAS Departure: Southwest 568, roger. Let me know when you get a gate and we’ll coordinate with the company.
[garbled / omitted]
LAS Approach: Southwest 568, turn left heading 070, vectors for the visual approach.
Southwest 568: Left heading 070, Southwest 568.
Southwest 568: And for Southwest 568, we’d like a little bit of long vectors. We just need to coordinate here with dispatch.
LAS Approach: No problem. We can do that 070 heading as far as you need.
Southwest 568: 070 heading, thank you. And can we expect runway 26 Left?
LAS Approach: Southwest 568, affirmative. Expect runway 26 Left. Current wind 110 at 5, gust 14, altimeter 29.84.
Southwest 568: We’ve got the weather set up for 26 Left. We’ll plan 26 Left. Thanks, Southwest 568.
LAS Approach: Southwest 568, heading 080.
Southwest 568: Heading 080, Southwest 568.
LAS Approach: Southwest 568, contact Las Vegas 135.0. Let them know when you get the gate number. We’ll pass it on to the tower so medics can get there for you.
Southwest 568: Contact Las Vegas 135.0. We’ll let them know the gate, Southwest 568.
Reportedly, the captain was assist away in a wheelchair and he “suffered a mild concussion.” Hopefully he has recovered well.
Heads up!! Display.
This could’ve all been prevented if we simply had the following:
1. EU261 scheme that gave passengers full protection.
2. Let the unions control everything, because they really care about the workers.
3. You all vote Democrat in the mid-terms in 6.5 months and restore sanity to this country.
4. Let me reply to every single post first across the travel blogs…and every single poster after that because you all are entitled to my comments and my opinions.
Wow, must’ve been quite the impact if he was puking. Also 1991, lol.
Thanks Mayor Pete! This is clearly due to the lack of transportation leadership in the Biden administration.
@1991 — Touché.
@Matt — Please consider Delta?
The transcript shows that situation was professionally handled by both the air traffic controller and by the first officer. Good job.
@ANAL — Psh. We’d be far better off with Secretary Buttigieg than industry-shill and reality-TV-star Duffy.