BROOFMEILD, Colo. — A plane landed safely at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA) in Broomfield over the weekend using Garmin's automated technology after the pilot was incapacitated minutes into the flight. This is the first time the company's version of the technology has been used in a real-world emergency situation.
The Beechcraft Super King Air 200, operated by Buffalo River Aircraft Services and equipped with Garmin’s Emergency Autoland system, left Aspen-Pitkin airport at 1:43 p.m. Saturday and landed safely a little over 30 minutes later at RMMA without incident, according to FlightAware.
"Garmin can confirm that an emergency Autoland activation occurred at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, Colorado. The Autoland took place on Sat., Dec. 20, resulting in a successful landing," said Garmin International spokeswoman Mikayla Rudolph, adding this was the first activation and landing of Garmin’s Autoland system.
Per the company's website, the Garmin Emergency Autoland system "takes complete control of the flight to land the airplane in an emergency where the pilot is unable to fly," finding an optimal airport for landing, while considering runway length, distance and fuel range, among other factors.
Though it was not clear how the pilot was incapacitated, air traffic audio obtained by Denver7 can be heard communicating that there was "pilot incapacitation" and relaying how many miles out to the airport the plane was and which runway it intended to use to land safely.
In a statement, Sydney Boyd, a spokeswoman for RMMA, said they were aware of the situation and had nothing to report as the plan landed safely without incident. The North Metro Fire Rescue District and Westminster Fire Department responded to the emergency landing at the airport, but North Metro Fire said no one on the plane was treated on scene or taken to a hospital.
Autoland systems have been available in aircraft for decades. However, this is the first-of-its-kind system designed to automatically take over in the event of pilot incapacitation.
- North Metro Fire Rescue provided the following video of the plane landing, in the video player below:
The flight was able to resume its path Sunday morning and landed in Oklahoma City at 12:24 p.m. CST.
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