Plane with Incapacitated Pilot Circles Gulf of Mexico for Hours, Crashes
N48DL, a Cessna 421C departed Slidell, LA (KASD) at 6:43a CT this morning en route to Sarasota/Bradenton International AIrport for a projected arrival around 10:43am. News reports indicate that the pilot became unresponsive to air traffic control and FlightAware indicates that at 7:40am (approximately one hour after takeoff), the airplane began making circles over the Gulf of Mexico. The circles continued for three hours between 27,000 and 33,000ft before the aircraft descended into the water. News reports indicate that there was only one person onboard (pilot) and that he did not survive the impact.
Flight Details
About the aircraft
The aircraft with tail number N48DL was a 1978 Cessna 412C twin-engine plane. The normal configuration seats 7 passengers and 1 pilot.
Links
About FlightAware
FlightAware, a part of Collins Aerospace, is a leading provider of real-time and historical flight information and insights to the global aviation community. FlightAware serves all segments of the aviation marketplace through best-in-class applications and data services that provide comprehensive information about the current and predicted movement of aircraft. Through the collection, interpretation, and enrichment of hundreds of sources of data, including data from FlightAware's own proprietary terrestrial ADS-B network with tens of thousands of receivers spanning seven continents in 200 countries and territories, FlightAware transforms millions of raw flight data elements and delivers them as coherent, easy-to-consume flight stories. As a single source of accurate and actionable data for aviation players large and small, FlightAware is Central to Aviation®.
