I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FLY THIS PLANE!

A passenger gets an emergency flying lesson when his pilot passes out 10,000 feet above the ocean

- Robert Kiener

The selfie Darren Harrison has just taken shows him dressed casually in white shorts and a T-shirt with his bare feet propped up on a plush gray leather seat. He is the lone passenger in the roomy six-seat cabin of a single-engine Cessna 208 turboprop some 12,000 feet above the Atlantic off the east coast of Florida.

He sends the photo to his wife, Brittney Harrison, who is six months pregnant with their first child. Harrison, a 39-year-old flooring sales executive, is returning to his home in Lakeland, Florida, after taking part in an offshore deep-sea fishing tournament in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas.

It’s around noon. The early May weather is perfect and the views— brilliant blue skies and crystalline ocean below—are drop-dead beautiful. The plane is being flown by Ken Allen, a 64-year-old veteran pilot. To Allen’s right in the co-pilot’s seat is his friend Russ Franck, 70. Franck’s no pilot, but he does enjoy going along for the ride.

Some 45 minutes into their scheduled 75-minute flight to Treasure Coast International Airport in Fort Pierce, Florida, air traffic controllers in Miami clear Allen to begin his approach to Fort Pierce, which is now some 70 miles to the west. They instruct him to descend to 10,000 feet.

“November 333 Lima Delta, Roger, Miami Center,” says Allen, using the plane’s call sign.

A few minutes later, as Allen continues his descent, the right side of his head starts pounding: Boom! Boom! Boom! Every time his heart beats, Allen feels as if his head is being hit with a hammer.

What the heck Allen wonders as he winces in pain. Out of his right eye, he begins seeing bright blue lights flashing.