A small aircraft landed itself at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), U.S., on Saturday, Dec. 20, after a cabin emergency, in the first-ever real-life use of the automated flight system – Autoland.
Why was the system activated?
The Beechcraft Super King Air 200, a twin-engine turboprop aircraft, experienced a sudden loss of cabin pressurisation shortly after taking off from Aspen’s airport (ASE) at approximately 23,000 feet, according to the flight’s operator, Buffalo River Aviation.
Since high-altitude pressurisation failure can leave the pilots incapacitated due to oxygen starvation, the emergency automatically triggered the Autoland system at around 2 p.m. local time (9 p.m. UTC), according to the manufacturer, Garmin.
Buffalo River Aviation has clarified that the two pilots were not incapacitated and that they deliberately allowed the automated system to land the aircraft to reduce risk. There were no passengers on board.
Chris Townsley, the company’s CEO, said in a statement:
In this case, the crew consciously elected to preserve and use all available tools and minimize additional variables in an unpredictable, emergent situation, prioritising life and a safe outcome over all other factors, as they are trained to do. The aircraft returned home the following day without incident.”
Once engaged, the system selected the nearest, safest airport, alerted air traffic controllers, and activated the appropriate touchdown mechanisms without any pilot intervention. Landing was completed at around 2:20 p.m. local time (9:20 p.m. UTC).
What is Autoland?
The G3000 Autoland system was introduced in 2019 by Garmin, a company that produces cockpit navigation and flight control technologies for commercial aviation.
It is designed to engage when pilots may become unable to control the aircraft and can be activated by them or automatically after a prolonged period of no-pilot interaction.
According to Garmin, Autoland analyses terrain, weather, airport features and the aircraft’s condition when calculating a route and flying the plane. The system is currently installed on more than 1,700 in-service aircraft.
Regarding Saturday’s incident, the company said in a statement that:
This was the first use of Autoland from start-to-finish in an actual emergency.”
The operator has said the pilots were unharmed and that there was no damage to the aircraft upon landing.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has opened an investigation into the incident, a routine procedure after such an emergency.
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