NEWARK, N.J. — The only inkling passengers had that something was wrong on the Continental Airlines flight over the Atlantic Ocean was when an announcement came over the loudspeaker asking if there was a doctor on board.
Otherwise, flight attendants continued to serve snacks. Passengers read magazines and watched movies. And the flight kept on its schedule.
But in the cockpit, the 60-year-old captain had died of a suspected heart attack and two co-pilots took over the controls.
The 247 passengers aboard did not learn what had happened until the flight from Brussels landed safely Thursday and was met by firetrucks, emergency vehicles and dozens of reporters.
“I was shocked,” said Dora Dekeyser of Houston. “Nobody knew anything.”
“We weren’t panicking. I never thought it was something as serious as this. We were relaxed,” said Dekeyser’s granddaughter, Stephanie Mallis, 18, of Lansdale, Pa.
After the crew of the Boeing 777 asked if there were any doctors aboard, several passengers approached the cockpit, including a doctor who said the pilot appeared to have suffered a heart attack.
Dr. Julien Struyven, 72, a cardiologist and radiologist from Brussels, examined the pilot in the cockpit and tried to revive him using a defibrillator. But it was too late.
“He was not alive,” Struyven said. There was “no chance at all” of saving him.
The dead pilot was based in Newark and had worked for Continental for 32 years, the airline said. His name was not immediately released.
Tom Donaldson, a former leader of the Continental pilots’ union who currently flies Boeing 767 jets for the airline, said pilots must pass an extensive physical every six months to remain qualified to fly.
For long routes such as trans-Atlantic flights, a third pilot is aboard to permit the captain or first officer to take rest breaks.
Donaldson said there is no specific training on how to react if a crew member becomes incapacitated, but any one of the three pilots is fully qualified to operate the jet.
