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Despite dealing with 15 other planes in the air at the time, the Miami air traffic control center helped the man disengage autopilot, turn the plane around and descend to Fort Myers.

Fort Myers air traffic controllers then helped him land the plane thanks to an assist from a Connecticut pilot. The man in Connecticut pulled out a King Air manual and read off a checklist for landing, which the Fort Myers air traffic controller then relayed to the passenger-turned-pilot.

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Although the passenger who eventually landed the plane was a licensed pilot, he

wasn't certified to fly a high-performance turboprop aircraft and had never flown a King Air plane, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

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ORIGINAL: hizgeorgiapeach

He was Already a Certificated Pilot, simply without signoff for that Specific Type (HiPro, TurboProp)......
 
no, I'm not in the least bit impressed, or suprised, that he was able to land it without difficulty.  What I AM surprised about is him having to have a pilot in another plane relay the checklist to him, rather than keeping his cool - he was, after all, already a pilot, he knows as a certificated pilot how to keep one straight & level, etc - and doing a quick look through the cockpit for the checklist which would have been in the deceased pilot's gear There In The Cockpit.   It's standard procedure, learned from the earliest stages of primary flight training, to USE the checklists..... and to know where to look for them.

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ORIGINAL: hizgeorgiapeach

Rule, while I appreciate sarcasm as much (if not more) than most - I wasn't simply being pithy.
 
I am a pilot myself.  I know how pilots are trained, having gone through it myself.  I am quite aware, as a pilot, that it's NOT THAT FRIGGIN HARD for someone who is Trained - which the article admitted the guy IS - to go from one type to another type of aircraft.  If the guy were completely untrained, were not certificated by the FAA as a pilot - my attitude about his "accomplishment" would be significantly different.
 
Yes, different types of aircraft each have their own quirks, but the guy who landed it - a Certificated Pilot - is NOT the same as someone who is completely NOT Certificated having achieved the same thing.   While the KingAire is a considerably larger plane than what most SELs (and even a lot of non-commercial MELs) are used to, it's still relies on Props, which is something that we get used to in primary training. And even the cockpit of a Boeing '47 isn't set up That differently than the cockpit of a Piper Cherokee, for a Certificated Pilot  to be completely lost and confounded when facing the new instrument panel.  The basic instrumentation is the same, although there's a helluva lot more of it, and certain items are located in pretty much an identical position regardless of which aircraft you're sitting in.
 
Would I expect someone that had absolutely Zero training to be thrown for a bit of a loop?  Absolutely.  Would I expect them to panic, have no clue where to look for things like the standard pre-landing checklists, know which instrument was what, and be lauded as someone who achieved something completely out of their league.  Again, Absolutely.
 
But frankly, I expect a Lot More than that from those whom I happen to share the skies with as a Trained, Certificated Pilot who has been tested by the FAA.  I expect a lot more compitance, and the ability to adapt to difficulties in flight that an untrained person wouldn't be capable of coping with.  So no - I'm not impressed that he safely landed a plane that he's not type certed for, and will remain unimpressed with a feat that any trained pilot should be capable of accomplishing in an emergency situation of the specific sort he was faced with.

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ORIGINAL: MarsBonfire

You mean my ability to fly a Piper Cub qualifies me to fly a 747? (Okay, it's an extreme example, but I think a valid one.) You are probably right... this is more of a media creation that a real story of heroisim, or grace under pressure.

Hardly an "OMG, the stewardess is flying the plane!" moment.