On July 26, 2009, a pilot’s voice came over the radio at an air traffic control tower in Oberlin, Ohio. His voice was slow and slurred and he said he couldn’t control his Kalitta Learjet. The two controllers knew he was in trouble.
The controllers, Stephanie Bevins and Jay McCombs, recognized the pilot was suffering from hypoxia — a condition caused by oxygen deprivation that has led to numerous plane crashes in the last decade.
Bevins and McCombs instructed the pilot to fly the jet to a lower altitude. It was there that he became more coherent and was able to regain control of the airplane.
The entire exchange between the controllers and the pilot was recorded.
Listen to it below:
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