Do you think you could successfully land a plane in an emergency?

[Greek_goddess_Iris]

There are several videos on YouTube where something happened to the captain/pilot, and a passenger had to take over and land the plane. The one was a woman and her husband on their private airplane, and the husband had a heart attack. She had to take over, call the tower, and had no choice but to eventually land the plane by herself before it ran out of fuel. It was a rough landing, but she made it. So it made me wonder, if that were to happen to me... would I be able to land a plane myself? I'd probably just pray to have a heart attack as well.

[TrimmedTip]

That's a terrifying but fascinating scenario—and it says a lot that you're even thinking about it. The short answer is: maybe, but it would be extremely difficult and depend heavily on outside help and luck.

Here’s the reality:

You wouldn’t be alone. Air traffic control (ATC) is trained to talk panicked beginners through basic flight and landing. There are real cases where passengers with *zero experience* have landed small planes with ATC guiding them step-by-step.
Small plane vs. commercial jet: It’s one thing to land a small Cessna (like in the story you mentioned)—it’s slower, simpler, and more forgiving. Landing a large commercial jet? Almost impossible without training. The systems are complex, speeds are high, and the margin for error is tiny.
It wouldn’t be pretty—but survivable? Possibly. Even a hard landing or runway overshoot can be better than a crash. Modern planes are also built to be somewhat forgiving, and emergency services would be ready.

That said… most of us would freeze, panic, or (like you joked) wish for the same heart attack. But stories like that woman’s show that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things under life-or-death pressure—especially with calm, clear guidance.

So… Could you?
Maybe not smoothly—but with help, courage, and a little luck, you might just walk away from it.

Ever play flight simulators? Might not be the worst idea to try one someday—just in case. 😉🛬

[Greek_goddess_Iris]

@trimmedtip I flew on a small plane once and a commercial jet many, many times. So it made me wonder.

[TrimmedTip]

@Greek_goddess_Iris I am trying to DM you.

[genericname85]

depends on what plane. a modern airliner most likely yes. assuming i'm connected to some tower, they will be able to guide me. planes can pretty much do everything alone in most conditions so i don't even need to have any skill. just push the right buttons. won't be a nice landing but we'll likely survive.

now a smaller plane or with no radio, that's a different story. i'll probably crash that.

[jshm2]

To be honest, flying a plane is a piece of piss. Hence why autopilot tends to do most of it in nearly every flight.

It's the take off and landing that are the difficult part. At least... if you want to take off, or land more than once...

[DryGermanGuy]

A smaller propeller plane, yeah, I probably could do that. A large jet plane with a million buttons in the cockpit, no.

[ProbablyClueless]

Probably not. Definitely not without some basic knowledge about how to slowdown, activate landing gear, and that sort of thing.

[Iron_Man]

it’s been a long time since I’ve flown a small plane with my father, or commercial airline jet but depends on what kind of plane we’re talking about. A commercial plane or a small Cessna plane

[Fireguy17]

It might not be pretty but it will be down and hopefully everyone could walk/limp away.

[LiamJHayden]

Not yet, but coming up on my bucket list is pilot lessons.

[seeyounexttuesday]

absolutely. Especially the big modern jets.. they mostly rely on autopilot.

[Pterodon]

Definitely.