LONDON
– A British pilot who was suddenly blinded by a stroke during a solo flight was
talked safely down by a military pilot, the Royal Air Force said Friday. Jim
O'Neill asked for help after he went blind 40 minutes into a flight from Scotland to southeastern England last
week. The BBC reported that O'Neill, flying a small Cessna aircraft, lost his
sight 5,500 feet in the air. "It was terrifying," O'Neill said.
"Suddenly, I couldn't see the dials in front of me." The air force said in a news release that
O'Neill initially believed he'd been "dazzled" by bright sunlight,
and made an emergency call for help. He then realized that something more
serious was happening. RAF Wing Commander Paul Gerrard was just finishing a
training flight nearby and was drafted in to help the stricken pilot. Gerrard
located the plane, began flying close to it and radioed directions. "Landing an aircraft literally blind
needs someone to be right there to say 'Left a bit, right a bit, stop, down,”
Gerrard said. "On the crucial final approach, even with radar assistance,
you need to take over visually. That's when having a fellow pilot there was so
important. "The doctors have confirmed that he suffered a stroke from a
blood clot, but he doesn't seem to have suffered any other ill-effects apart
from losing his sight," Douglas O'Neill said. "You could hear the apprehension in his voice over the
radio and the frustration he was experiencing," said radar controller
Richard Eggleton. "I kept saying 'Are you visual?' and he would reply 'No
sir, negative, I'm sorry sir.' He kept on apologizing. With Gerrard talking him
down, O'Neill's plane hit the runway and bounced up again, the RAF said. It did
the same on the second touchdown. On the third, O'Neill was able to keep his
plane on the ground.
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