


An airline captain suffered an “uncontrollable nosebleed” on a flight from Canada to the Dominican Republic — but an off-duty pilot of equal rank jumped in to take his place in the left seat, according to a report.
The pilot suffered an unusual nasal emergency on the Air Transat Flight TS186 from Toronto to Punta Cana on Nov. 22, People magazine reported.
“As one of our other captains was on board with his family heading out on vacation, he was fit and able to take over the duties of the incapacitated captain for the remainder of the flight,” the airline told the mag in a statement.
“It is worth noting that our pilots are expertly trained to deal with situations such as this one and can manage flying our aircraft unassisted,” a rep said.
“As such, there was absolutely no risk for anyone on this flight and the situation would have been the same had the backup pilot not been on board,” the statement added.
The captain became incapacitated “approximately 3 hours into the flight,” as the other pilot, who was listed as “company qualified,” replaced him in the cockpit, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said.
The incident was listed as a “class 5 occurrence,” meaning it was not subject to a “comprehensive investigation,” according to the agency.
The flight, with 299 people on board, landed at Punta Cana International Airport “without incident,” the airline said.
Data from the incident will be submitted for “possible future safety analysis, statistical reporting, or archival purposes,” according to the safety board.