Passengers heard not one but two chilling announcements on a recent United Airlines flight from Des Moines to Denver, after their pilot suffered a heart attack at 30,000 feet.

Quick-thinking nurse Linda Alweiss, from Camarillo, California, rushed to respond when crew asked over the loud speaker if any passengers had medical training.

But as she was administering aid to the ‘mumbling and incoherent’ pilot, another, distinctly more terrifying plea was heard: ‘Does anyone in the cabin have flight experience?’

Thankfully, the co-pilot managed to safely land the plane at an airport in Omaha, but not before the unusual request thoroughly frightened all on board.

  

Hero: Quick-thinking nurse Linda Alweiss, pictured left and right, rushed to respond when the pilot suffered a heart-attack mid-flight

The drama began about 20 minutes into the December 30 flight.

Mrs Alweiss was flying home via Denver with her husband and 16-year-old daughter from a Christmas vacation. When the first announcement was made the registered nurse with decades of experience was first to respond.

She said she found the pilot slumped over in the cockpit.

‘He was sick and mumbling and was just incoherent,’ she told KTLA.

The pediatric intensive care nurse, who only recently re-certified her advanced cardiac life support accreditation, noticed his heart was beating irregularly and determined he’d probably suffered a blood clot or a heart-attack.

Scary: Mrs Alweiss was flying home via Denver with her husband and 16-year-old daughter from a Christmas vacation when the two frightening announcements were made

Another nurse, Amy Sorenson, of Wyoming, also volunteered to assist and the pair, with the help of other passengers, pulled the captain out of the cockpit and into the galley so they had more room to work.

The nurses set up a diagnostic defibrillator and administered an IV.

After the co-pilot took control of the airplane, Mrs Alweiss said she turned to the woman and asked, ‘You know how to land the plane, right?’ And she said ‘yes.’

‘I felt immediately comfortable. That was just one thing I didn’t have to think about, so I could focus more on what was going on with the patient,’ Mrs Alweiss recounted to KTLA.

But a second announcement was made, asking if there were any pilots in the cabin.

‘That kind of changed the story a little bit,’ Mrs Alweiss’ husband, Alan, explained with a laugh.

Room to work: Alweiss and another nurse, Amy Sorenson, pulled the captain out of the cockpit and into the galley, pictured, and after the flight landed safely he was met by paramedics, right, on the tarmac

The co-pilot managed to land the plane without trouble and paramedics were waiting to treat the pilot on the tarmac.

‘United flight 1637, a Boeing 737 operating between Des Moines and Denver Monday evening, landed safely in Omaha after the captain became ill,’ the airline said in a statement. ‘United accommodated the customers overnight, and they continued to Denver the next day.’

On the rescheduled flight the following day, Mrs Alweiss sat next to the co-pilot who informed her the pilot had survived and was being treated in the cardiac unit of an Omaha hospital.

‘She did her job,’ Mr Alweiss proudly told KTLV of his wife.

‘She jumped at the opportunity, didn’t hesitate. And she did it at 30,000 feet, knowing that the person who was supposed to be flying the plane was her patient.’
source::::Helen Pow in mailonline.com UK
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