[Jonzarno]

I came across this incident on the COPA forum and thought it worth cross-posting here.

A pilot flying at 23000 Ft had some sort of problem with his O2 and passed out leaving his non-flying daughter needing to descend the plane. The ATC and another pilot help her to do so.

https://employees.faa.gov/org/linebusin ... wsId=59708

If you open the page, there's a further link to a recording of the radio traffic and the radar plot:

https://employees.faa.gov/org/linebusin ... t_clip.wmv

I'd be interested to hear what others do in terms of briefing non-pilot passengers about what to do if anything happens to the pilot.

[peterh337]

I had an oxygen demand regulator (not the 1st stage regulator) fail recently.

It was OK because it failed OPEN and anyway I had two of them, plus other options like constant flow cannulas, so we went on. The extra gas usage would not have been a problem due to the large composite cylinder I had.

But it taught me a lesson which is to double up on things - including having two 1st stage regulators. I've just ordered another one of those. My mechanical demand reg failed open but the well known electronic brand fails shut when the power runs out.

But at 23k feet things will happen a lot faster. Most people will be unconscious (or effectively so) after some minutes.

Here is another apparent hypoxia encounter
http://www.bluerobin.flyer.co.uk/trinidad_icing.rtf

[bvq]

Apart from the usual briefings about operation of the seat belts, canopy, fire extinguisher, etc, I normally tell my PAX how to contact ATC should I become incapacitated. Other than that I cannot think of what else would be useful. There is too much else that they would need to know to get the plane back on the ground. Their best hope would be to speak to ATC and get an instructor to talk them through it.

On a plane with no auto-pilot they would have to hand fly it as soon as I was incapacitated so the outcome is unlikely to be a good one

[Liam548]

i presume the female still had some oxygen supply? at 23kfeet she would be sleeping in no time otherwise..

[johnm]

i presume the female still had some oxygen supply? at 23kfeet she would be sleeping in no time otherwise..

Not necessarily, depends how fit and sensible she was. Everest has been climbed several times without oxygen

[greggj]

maybe it would be great to have some emergency supply, like those masks that you can put on, and they have their own little can of oxygen. That should be sufficient to descend to 6-8k ft.

[alanevans]

I maker my personal limit about F190 or so. Time of useful conciousness is around 30 mins. This allows 10 mins to notice a problem, 10 mins to descend to non-oxygen levels and 10 mins spare.