Passengers Restrain Pilot After Mid-Flight Emergency

Ben Nelms / REUTERSPassengers had to step up and assist a pilot after he suffered a medical emergency just hours into the flight. An Air Canada flight, operated by regional partner PAL Airlines as Flight AC7664, was en route from Newark to Halifax on Wednesday with 61 passengers aboard when passengers felt the plane swerve. They later learned this was due to the pilot suffering a seizure while actively flying. “The moment the plane swerved, I knew something was wrong because it was not turbulence,” passenger Rodney McDonald told ABC News about the frightening incident. “One of the flight attendants entered the cockpit frantically, and a few moments later, he was dragging one of the pilots out of the cockpit onto the aisle way of the airplane.” According to McDonald, he and four others helped restrain the pilot, who was seized for about 40 minutes while the copilot took over and diverted the flight to Boston, which landed at 1:40 p.m. local time. A Massachusetts Port Authority spokesperson told People that the “aircraft landed without incident,” and Air Canada, which operates the flight, confirmed to CBC that the passengers were helped to “complete their journeys as soon as possible.” The Daily Beast has reached out to Air Canada for comment.Read it at PeopleRead more at The Daily Beast.