What to Do if the Pilot Passes Out and You Have to Land a Plane

Soyour pilot passed out. The good news is the plane will probably have a sophisticated autopilot that can take
care of most of the flying for you. The bad news is you will still probably have to land the damn thing. And
since every aircraft cockpit is going to be different, it's not like you'd know exactly where to look to find the
things you need.
Let's take an example aircraftyep, you guessed it
the 737. The first thing you're going to want to do is
put on the pilot's headset and find the pilot's audio
controls. They'll look like this:
Note that there are three of theseone for a pilot, a
copilot, and an observer. The one closest to you is the
pilot's. Make sure VHF-1 is selected in the MIC
SELECTOR button group. Otherwise you'll just be
talking to your passengersand chances are they sure
as hell won't be able to help.
Chances are whatever frequency is dialed in will work,
so just hold down the push-to-talk button on the yoke,
and tell ATC your situation:

It's labeled here as "microphone intercomm switch."

Now, ATC is probably going to give you headings and
altitudes to fly. These can be dialed into the autopilot's
mode control panel (MCP), which is at the very top of
the dashboard, along the glareshield:
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First, make sure the autopilot is
engaged by verifying that either
the CMD A or CMD B buttons
are lit. Press either one if not. To
fly a heading, dial the heading
into the HDG window and press
the HDG SEL button to enable
"heading select" lateral mode.
To climb or descend to an altitude, dial the altitude into the ALTITUDE window and select the LVL CHG
button to set "level change" vertical mode. Once the aircraft captures that altitude, it should automatically
activate ALT HOLD (altitude hold) mode.

ATC may also want you to slow down in preparation for landing. To control speed, select the SPEED
autothrottle mode, dial the airspeed (in knots) you want to fly, and verify that the A/T ARM (autothrottle arm)
switch is on. If the autothrottle is having trouble slowing the aircraft down (say, due to a descent), you can give
it some assistance by deploying the speed brakes. When this handle is pulled back...
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...the speed brakes deploy and slow the
plane down aerodynamically.
Controlling altitude, heading, and
airspeed should get you safely on the
final approach course of a satisfactory
runway at a safe approach speed,
somewhere under 250 knots and at a
sufficient altitude for a smooth landing.
Now comes the tricky part, landing. A
good approach speed for a 737 is
somewhere around 140 knots with 30
of flapthough it does vary with
aircraft weight and weather conditions.
One-hundred and forty should be fine
in a pinch, though. The 737 cannot fly 140 knots without the flaps being lowered, however, so you will need to
incrementally lower flaps as your aircraft slows down. The flap lever lets you select flap position:

As you can see, it has notches from 0

down to 40 of flap. To know which speed
to lower the next notch of flaps at, check
the placard underneath the landing gear
lever.

As your plane slows to landing speed (called VREF),

keep lowering those flaps until they're at 30 (or
maybe even 40ATC will have probably found a
qualified 737 pilot to talk you down by now, and
s/he'll be feeding you flap settings).
Speaking of landing gear, you'll want to lower that,
too. Remember to check the placard and don't lower
the landing gear until you're at or below a safe gear
extension speed. Push the lever down until the three
green lights illuminate, then return it to the neutral
position.
OK, once you've got the runway in sight, your aircraft is configured for landing, and your airspeed is under
control, it's time to flip off the autopilot. Press the autopilot disengage button on the yoke and take control. This
will sound an alarm which you can silence by pressing this button in front of you:

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You can leave the autothrottle on since
you're going to want to fly 140 knots all
the way down the chute, and it will help
take a load off.
Use smooth and gentle corrections to fly
the correct glideslope. Use bank to stay
aligned with the runway. Locate the
runway's PAPI lights, which look like this:

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Two white, two red, you're fine. If you see three or four whites, you're too high, and you should pitch down to
recapture the correct glideslope. If you see three or four reds, you're getting too low and should pitch up.
Maintain a good glideslope until you cross the runway threshold. Then, do the following:

1. Disengage the autothrottle by pressing the autothrottle disengage button:

2. Retard the throttles to their full back position.
3. Slowly pitch the aircraft up so it lands on its rear tires.
4. Deploy speed brakes entirely, and activate the reverse thrust
by pulling up on the two levers behind the throttles (pictured
above).
When your airspeed drops below 80 knots, deactivate reverse
thrust and begin manual braking. Do this by pressing down on
both foot pedals. Airspeed will be shown in the display in front
of you. It's the left number (210 knots in this photo).

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Use the foot brakes to bring the airplane to a
complete stop. Shut down the engines by moving
the fuel cutoff switches to the "cutoff" position.
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Stopping the engines will start a great number of
alarm bells, but it's fine. You've just made it safe for
emergency crew to board the aircraft and take over.
Grab a beer from the galley and enjoy the ride down
the emergency evacuation slide.
About a hundred million pilots will read this and
have aneurisms because I instructed you to use pitch to maintain
glideslope on the approach (pitch up if you're low; pitch down if
you're high). All pilots are trained, on approach, to maintain
altitude with throttle (more throttle if you're low, less if you're
high), and to use pitch to maintain airspeed (pitch up if your
speed drifts above 140, down if you get slower than 140). And
this is correct. But you've got the autothrottle helping you to
maintain 140 knots, and it's in control of the throttles. So the
only thing left for you to control is pitch (and bank, of course).