An 80-year-old woman overcame her own frailness and lack of flight time to land a small plane when her husband pilot collapsed.
Helen Collins and her husband, John, were flying from Florida to Wisconsin. John said his neck was sore earlier that day, but he insisted that he was fine for flying. Toward the end of the flight, he collapsed. That left Helen to fly the plane.
Helen dialed 911 and explained her situation. A pilot on the ground at Cherryland Airport talked her through the landing procedures that she vaguely remembered from when she herself flew planes, about 30 years ago. (She had flown solo but never something as large as the twin-engine Cessna she was now in charge of.)
The plane was running out of fuel, and one engine was sputtering. Undeterred, Helen soldiered on.
Another pilot in a similar plane joined Helen in the sky, and the two of them got Helen's plane on the ground intact, despite a rather bumpy landing that resulted in broken landing gear. Her son Richard was waiting for them. (Their other son, James, also a pilot, had volunteered to help with the flying, but John insisted on flying by himself.)
John, 81, died. He was the chief executive of the family manufacturing business in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., and had been flying for more than 30 years, including volunteer stints for Angel Flight, an emergency hospital fight service.
Helen was released from a local hospital after being treated for injuries including a crushed vertebra. She had undergone two open-heart surgeries in recent years but showed no signs of heart trouble during her emergency landing.
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