It would have been wonderful if planes and cars could drive themselves. Then we could all, including retired pilots, have had that drink in the back and “terrorists” would not have had the option to take over the controls.

But please don’t let washing machine engineers automate the vehicles We will just end up with three cryptic buttons, a ridiculous knob and eventual angry attendants.

However, figure out the statistics for yourself, who are creating the most terror ? , holistically, the rude airport personnel or the small bunch of political extremists ?

Printout a copy of the Hail Mary prayer (or easily commit to memory).

In the event you find yourself aboard a pilotless aircraft recite the prayer repeatedly until the aircraft lands.

One bit of useful information is that the button that allows you to transmit over the communication radio will often be labelled “PTT.” This label will be meaningless to most people, but it stands for “push to talk.” Considering that this button is possibly the single most important thing in the entire airplane in such a situation, it would be nice if they actually labelled it “push to talk” instead of PTT so someone could actually find it.

Being able to land an airplane is such a cool and interesting man skill that for those interested in it, it could be a fun thing to take a flying lesson at the local airport. A single lesson is not all that expensive and you don’t have to go on to get your license or anything. Just spend an hour flying around with an instructor gaining some basic understanding of control and handling. Just tell them that you want some “pinch-hitter” training and they will probably be more than glad to run you through the basics.

I currently fly C-17’s for the Air Force as Brett mentioned earlier in the comments. I have 30 hours in Diamond DA-20 AND approx 200 hours in T-6 Texan (single-engine) and T-1 Jayhawk (Beech 400A, a twin engine jet).

I also have my instrument rating, my single and multi-engine land, a Beech 400 rating, as well as a commercial pilot’s license.

Now, having said that, I acknowledge that I have no experience flying commercial jets. However, Boeing makes the C-17 (a large 4 engine tactical airlift plane) and in looking at cockpit pictures of other Boeing commercial jets it appears as though they’ve set them up very similarly, especially the AFCS panel.

For everyone blasting this article as far-fetched, unrealistic, etc. You are right. The chances of an untrained pilot ever being behind the controls of a commercial jet are worse than even winning the lottery or getting struck by lightening.

And yes, unless there was a controller and plane expert to give detailed step-by-step instructions, a non-pilot would crash unless a miracle happened. That’s not the point, this post was supposed to be for fun, providing the reader with some interesting facts about flying and landing a jet.

I tried to provide some overarching generalities so there will no doubt be circumstances where these steps don’t apply. Like the green arc for airspeed. Obviously this won’t be found in a 777, but if you find yourself in a small plane it will provide you with some help.

If you’re taking this article completely seriously and analyzing each point and detail you are missing the point. Just like magazines publish entertaining articles like how to ride a bull, or golf like Tiger Woods, this post was meant simply to give a glimpse into some of the procedures for landing a jet in an emergency.

Lighten up a little.

I saw some interesting posts explaining how to land an airplane using the autopilot (obviously, those were written by people who know about flying). It’s very important to mention that NOT ALL of the airliners/airplanes are autoland capable. Also you need to know (to everyone who think they can land safely after reading this post), not just the airplane need to be equipped & capable to make an autoland, BUT the AIRPORT need to be equipped with minimum an ILS CAT II and/or ILS CAT III to execute a SAFE AUTOLAND. BTW, we (pilots) need to be trained & CERTIFIED to do this procedure. As you see, IS NOT THAT EASY!