The First Officer who was the flying pilot on American Airlines flight 755 from Paris to Philadelphia on November 29th, had a seizure that stiffened his legs and back, jamming his feet under the rudder pedals on short final approach. The captain immediately took over flying duties and there was no loss of aircraft control. The relief pilot who was required to be on the flight deck during landing was able to remove the unconscious pilot from the seat with the help of the purser. The relief pilot occupied the seat for a normal landing and taxi to the gate.

Dr. Stillwagon substantiated his report with an audio recording of the captain speaking with Air Traffic Control about the medical emergency, which you can listen to on his post.

As reported by fellow Substack author, Dr. William Makis, this incident was the fourth pilot incapacitation in two weeks.

Nov.26, 2023 – Ryanair Flight FR-3472 (LTN-RZE) from London Luton, UK to Rzeszow (Poland) on Nov.26, 2023, one of the pilots became incapacitated, plane diverted to Krakow and landed safely

Nov.20, 2023 – Air Transat Flight TS-186 (YYZ-PUJ) from Toronto, Canada to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – pilot became incapacitated and was replaced by a pilot passenger

Nov.16, 2023 – Air India Pilot Death – 37 year old Air India Pilot Captain Himanil Kumar had cardiac arrest at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport during training.

In my effort to understand what is going on with such pilot incapacitations, I spoke with Australian veteran pilot Shane Murdock, who recently published a fascinating paper titled: Impending Disaster in the Global Aviation Industry, which I highly recommend reading.