Editorials

Non-pilot landing small plane shows us we are likely capable of more than we think

Ever had a dream where you're in the back of a car that's roaring down the highway but there's no driver in front? Or that you're in the sky but there's no one piloting the plane?

One man found himself in the latter nightmare scenario last week.

He was the passenger in a single-engine plane flying 20 miles east of Boca Raton, Fla., when the pilot became "incoherent," in the words of the passenger.

But what transpired next is an example of the abilities anyone can summon when everything is on the line. Acting on instructions from an air traffic controller, the passenger managed to get the plane safely back down on the ground, despite declaring at one point, "I have no idea how to stop the airplane. I don't know how to do anything."

But he did it. And the fact that he was able to should serve as a reminder that we're all probably capable of a lot more than we realize.