For the first time ever, an aircraft has managed to land itself during a real emergency situation, which is a huge step forward for aviation automation.
Garmin announced that its Autoland system successfully brought a Beechcraft Super King Air 200 down safely at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport close to Denver, and thankfully, both occupants were unharmed.
The twin-engine turboprop was being operated by Buffalo River Aviation on a flight from Aspen when it suddenly lost cabin pressure without warning.
As noted by the company's CEO, Chris Townsley, the pilots quickly put on their oxygen masks as they were trained to do, and Garmin's Autoland system kicked in once the cabin altitude went above safe levels. The crew decided to let the system handle the landing.
Currently, Autoland is installed on around 1,700 planes, and it relies on autopilot technology to find a nearby airport, communicate with air traffic control, navigate around obstacles, and safely land the aircraft.
Audio recordings revealed that the system alerted controllers about an "emergency auto-land," mentioning automated messages about pilot incapacitation, which Buffalo River Aviation later explained were just part of the system's normal alerts.
According to Garmin, this incident marks the first time Autoland has been used from start to finish in a real emergency scenario, rather than just during a test.
The Federal Aviation Administration is now looking into what happened.
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