Ken Allen and Darren Harrison.Photo:Nathan Congleton/NBC
Nathan Congleton/NBC
It’s been over a year sincea Florida man with no flying experience miraculously landed a planeafter the pilot experienced a medical emergency mid-flight. And on Friday, the two were surprisingly reunited in an emotional segment on theTodayshow.
The get together happened as co-anchorSavannah Guthriesat down with pilot Ken Allen forhis first interview since the incident.
On May 10, Allen, 65, was piloting asingle-engine Cessna 208 aircraftnearly 12,000 ft. in the air when he suddenly became unconscious, turning the short flight from the Bahamas to Fort Pierce, Florida into a life or death situation.
Darren Harrison, one of two passengers on board, quickly stepped up to the plate. Despite having no aviation experience, the 40-year-old took control of the nose-diving aircraft, stead it, and — with help of air traffic control and one one certified flight instructor below — safely land it at Palm Beach airport.
Once the aircraft finally came to a stop, Harrison thanked the man on the other side of the headset before throwing it on the dash of the plane. He toldTodayback in May that he then “said the biggest prayer I’ve ever said in my life.The last part of the prayer and the strongest part was for the guy in the back, because I knew it was not a good situation.”
It sure wasn’t. Though initially though he had a stroke because he was incoherent and not moving part of his body, it turns out Allen had experience an aortic dissection — something that could have killed him.
Ken Allen and Darren Harrison.TODAY Show/X
TODAY Show/X
“Most patients with this diagnosis don’t make it,' said Dr. Nishant Patel, the cardiac surgeon who led the medical team treating Allen. He later explained that high blood pressure, genetic conditions and an aortic aneurysm could put someone at risk, but that “most patients that have this have no clue something like this could happen.”
“To see him go through all of that and get approval to fly? That truly is amazing,” Patel said.
Ken Allen and his plane.TODAY Show/X
Allen’s health is in good shape now, he told Guthrie. “I feel great. I feel like my old self,” he said, adding that being able to fly again was “incredible.” Said Allen: “I really didn’t think I was going to but I don’t give up easily, so I had to see it through.”
Both men remarked on the fact that they see the day as not something that went wrong, but something that went right. “If he would have flown into the airport he would have flown into, he probably wouldn’t have made it because he was in the wrong location,” Harrison said, noting how far Dr. Patel’s team was. “One thing after another…. How everything worked out, it all came together. It was just a miracle.”
And despite the incident, Harrison hasn’t lost faith in Allen. The two took a flight last week and Allen is flying Harrison’s wife Britney to Charleston next week.
Ken Allen and Darren Harrison, hugging on the ‘Today’ show.TODAY Show/X
“I had so much guilt that I endangered their lives,” Allen said. “The first thing, besides crying, was apologizing to him and [the other passenger]. I felt so bad.”
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Back in May, Robert Morgan — the certified flight instructor working at the Palm Beach air traffic facility who guided Harrison to safety — spoke out about the the headline-making incident, revealing that despite the heightened nature of the experience, it was ultimately business as usual.
“At the end of the day, I feel like I was just doing my job,” Morgan said, in an interview with the Federal Aviation Administration. “But it was just on a higher level than you ever thought you had to do it.”
Todayairs weekdays (beginning at 7 a.m. ET) on NBC.
source: people.com
