Pilot Says He ‘Doesn’t Feel Right’ Mid-Flight, Then Things Take A Grim Turn

No one could have foreseen the dramatic events of that flight, least of all Darren. The Florida native had climbed aboard with no inkling whatsoever of the drama that was to come. He’d just wanted to put his feet up and get back to his family after a vacation.

Before the dramatic flight, Darren was enjoying a relaxing break in the Bahamas. He's keen fisherman, you see, and so he’d spent most of his vacation out on a boat. As someone who usually works as a flooring specialist for an interiors firm in Florida, the vacation made for a welcome change of scenery.

Away from work, though, Darren was entering a very exciting period in his life. He and his spouse, Britney, were set to become parents for the first time. She’d just entered into her third trimester while her husband was on his trip, so the expectant mom was closing in on a due date.

All in all, it’s fair to say that things were looking great for Darren during that spell; his life seemed to be trending in the right direction. We imagine then that he was in pretty high spirits after his vacation. When it was time for Darren to bid farewell to the Bahamas, he joined another guy at a nearby airstrip, where they would hop aboard the flight back home.

The pair weren’t hitching a ride on a standard passenger jet. Instead, they took their seats on a Cessna 208. These planes have been around since the 1980s and boast various models. Some of them are used for public flights, while others are called upon by armed forces across the world.

The Cessna 208 is a single-engined propeller-driven plane, and has a maximum capacity of 14 people. It can fly a little over 1,200 miles on a single tank of fuel, reaching speeds in excess of 210 mph at its fastest.Unlike commercial ets, these planes have an operational ceiling of 25,000 feet.

Darren and the other passenger took their seats while the pilot prepared for the coming journey, with Florida the destination. After completing standard final checks, he revved up the single engine and took to the Bahaman skies in May 2022. But the trio had no idea what awaited them.

Like we suggested earlier, everything was going to plan at first. Darren was chilling out in the area behind the captain’s chair, looking out at the clear sky. The dad-to-be literally had his feet up on the seat directly in front of him, having taken off his shoes. He didn’t have a care in the world at that stage.

Unfortunately for Darren, though, that peace and tranquility was soon shattered in the most horrifying of circumstances. It was a moment that many people fear when traveling on an airplane — what if something happens to the pilot? What would that mean for the rest of the passengers? The salesman was about to find out.

Fidgeting in his chair in the cockpit, the pilot informs Darren and the other traveler, “Guys, I gotta tell you. I don’t feel good.” Uh-oh. Concerned, Britney’s husband looks to gather a bit more information. “What’s wrong?” he questions. Maybe the aviator’s experiencing a bout of air sickness or something?

If only it were that simple. The pilot responds, “I got a headache, and I’m fuzzy. I just don’t feel right.” The last words you want to hear from your pilot! Anyway, Darren quickly fires back, “What do we need to do?” But he doesn’t get a reply: the two passengers are met by silence.

Mere moments after sharing his concerns, the captain has passed out in his chair. Now, if this were a bigger plane with a larger crew, there’d no doubt be a co-pilot on hand to deal with the situation. Yet Darren doesn’t have that luxury here. He and the second passenger are on their own.

Fortunately, the pilot hasn’t fallen forward onto the controls. He’s in an upright position on the chair. Despite this slice of luck, though, Darren sees just how bad things have suddenly become. As the father-to-be makes his way to the front seats, he’s greeted by a nightmarish sight out the window.

Yes, the surface of the sea is quickly engulfing Darren’s field of vision. He knows that the aircraft is now spiraling out of the sky. It was a scene that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Hollywood action movie. Yet the situation was as real as it gets.

In assessing the situation, Darren has to make a huge decision. Does he accept his fate and prepare for a crash-landing into the water? Or should he try to intervene? The sales worker has no piloting skills of his own to call upon.

Darren soon makes his choice — he has no intention of perishing on this flight. The father-to-be has everything to live for, including, of course, his pregnant wife at home. So, he approaches the pilot’s chair and glaces at the controls. He’s got to act now if there’s any hope of getting out of this in one piece.

Carefully, Darren moves his arms past the prone captain, inching ever closer to the control stick. Once he’s got hold of it, he decides to steadily drag it back towards him, while also moving to the right. He might not have piloting experience, but the fishing fan’s previous plane trips influenced his thinking here.

You see, Darren was aware that a sharp pull on the stick could make the aircraft’s engine to stall. Not only that, but the speed had to be taken into consideration as well. He was worried that if he acted too hastily, both wings could’ve been torn off the fuselage. 

Thankfully, Darren’s slower approach takes the plane out of the dive and back into a steadier position. The hard work isn’t over yet, though. Not by a long shot. With the pilot still unconscious, he and the second passenger move him from the chair, into a spot towards the rear.

At this point, Darren can finally sit at the controls with no obstructions. He’s the de facto pilot. Yet even this worrying development isn’t the end of his problems: a further issue soon rears its head.

Knowing that he has to contact someone at air traffic control, Darren grabs the captain’s headset. But as he puts it on, the dad-to-be notices that the connection cable has unraveled at the bottom. No amount of tinkering can fix it. How will he be able to call for help, then?

Simple — as luck would have it, there is a spare headset on board. The second traveler is holding on to it. He subsequently passes the vital piece of equipment to Darren, who gets in touch with Fort Pierce Tower. That’s part of Florida’s Treasure Coast International Airport, in case you were curious.

Darren doesn’t waste any time in outlining the gravity of his predicament. He tells the Florida tower, “I’ve got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.” After this, the person on the other end wants an idea of where the aircraft actually is.

“I have no idea [where we are],” Darren responds. “I can see the coast of Florida in front of me. And I have no idea.” But while the tower can’t lock on to the airplane’s location, the people there can do something just as important: they can offer instructions on how to pilot the Cessna 208.

Down on the ground in Fort Pierce, two guys in particular are really stepping up. Supervisor Justin Boyle and air traffic controller Christopher “Chip” Flores take charge of the situation. Together, they advise Darren to slowly lower the plane’s altitude, which will give them a chance to find it.

Darren obliges, and it eventually leads to a breakthrough. An air traffic control worker in Palm Beach named Joshua Somers spots the plane on radar. It’s just 20 miles outside of Boca Raton Airport. The makeshift pilot isn’t out of the woods yet, though. 

At this stage, Fort Pierce Tower hooks Darren up with Palm Beach County’s air traffic control team. They in turn reach out to someone who might be able to help: certified flying instructor Robert Morgan. He had to be called back from his break to join the group.

Now, Robert is no stranger to Cessna planes. He’s spent a lot of time around them, so you can understand why he’s been pulled in. There’s just one issue — he isn’t as familiar with the type Darren is currently flying. Despite this, the instructor begins to talk.

Robert aims to bring Darren straight to Palm Beach International Airport. Boca Raton is the nearer of the two to his position, but its runway is smaller. So, the father-to-be starts to direct the plane on this heading, following the commands to a tee. Will he make it there without any more hiccups?

After listening to Robert throughout, Darren finally reaches the airstrip. He’s given a thorough rundown on how to land the Cessna 208 safely. And it pays off! Against unimaginable odds, they touch the tarmac in one piece. Phew! 

For Robert, the final stretch proved to be the most heart-stopping part of his involvement in this story. You see, the aircraft briefly disappeared off his equipment during that spell, leaving him pretty concerned. To go into more detail, the instructor spoke to the Federal Aviation Administration via website Medium in May 2022.

Robert said, “I was kinda like, ‘Uh-oh, what do I do now?’ So I’m just like, ‘Hey, I don’t see you anymore on my radar, I just want to make sure you’re still there, can you still hear me? Before I knew it, [Darren] said, ‘I’m on the ground now, what do you want me to do?’” Darren even had a suggestion.

During a chat with TV show Today in May 2022, Darren recalled, “Surprisingly I felt so comfortable [landing the plane]. I radioed to the guy. I said, ‘Hey I’m feeling pretty confident in the brakes and everything. Do you guys want me to turn off the runway so I can clear this thing out?’” Bet they didn’t see that coming!

As for what happened next, Darren continued, “I said, ‘Thank you for everything.’ Then I threw the headset on the dash and said the biggest prayer I’ve ever said in my life. That’s when all the emotion set in. The last part of the prayer, and the strongest part, was for the [pilot]. I knew it wasn’t a good situation.”

Yes, the stricken pilot was eventually taken to a nearby medical facility following the landing in Florida. And the initial prognosis was very bleak — doctors didn’t believe that he’d survive. But the guy thankfully proved everyone wrong. He was set to be released later that month after making an unlikely recovery.

Meanwhile, Darren also touched on his decision to not speak with Britney until the aircraft was grounded. He told Today, “Everybody’s asked me, ‘What if you would’ve crashed and died, and you didn’t get a chance to tell your wife you loved her? You could’ve called her.’ In my mind, I knew I wasn’t going to die.”

“The thought never crossed my mind to call and tell my wife, ‘Bye,’” Darren continued. “[Hearing Britney’s voice] was one of the biggest reliefs, because I was safe [when we spoke].” Happily, this confident decision was vindicated in the end.

How do the protagonists of this crazy tale reflect on it now? Robert’s perspective was an interesting one. The instructor noted, “At the end of the day, I feel like I was just doing my job. But it was just on a higher level than you ever thought you had to do it.”

As for Darren, he believed that divine intervention was partly responsible for him getting out of that situation alive. The father-to-be concluded, “Everybody has asked me, ‘How did the airplane do what it did? How did it stay together? How did you pull it out?’ The hand of God was on that plane. There’s no other explanation for it.”