A passenger was forced to ground a small plane in North Carolina over the weekend when the pilot, a distinguished Duke University professor, suffered a near-fatal medical emergency.
Joseph Izatt suffered unexplained health complications Sunday afternoon while piloting a Cirrus SR-20. WRAL News reported.
The unnamed passenger, who was the only passenger on board, took over and safely landed the plane at Raleigh-Durham International Airport around 4:50 p.m., the paper said.
“I knew I was witnessing something,” onlooker Evan Caulfield said. told ABC11.
Caulfield, a member of the Fookee Fire Department, heard about the incident while listening to the radio scanner while dropping off his daughter at the airport.
He filmed on his mobile phone footage of paramedics loading people on stretchers into ambulances on the tarmac.
It was not immediately clear whether Aizat was pronounced dead on the tarmac or later at the hospital.
ABC11 added that Aizat “crouched over the controls,” according to air traffic control radio, and then the person in the passenger seat took over.
The single-engine plane, registered to Izatt, took off from Raleigh-Durham Airport at 3:30 p.m.
Isatt was the Michael J. Fitzpatrick Professor of Engineering at Duke University and dean of the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.
He has been with the school since 2001 and was a pioneer in medical imaging.
duke Izzat’s death was announced on Monday. And he ordered campus flags to be lowered to half-mast in his honor.
“Since joining Duke University in 2001, Isat has contributed to the university through dedicated service to students and colleagues and as a pioneering researcher,” the memorial said.
Dean Jerome Lynch recalled his late colleague as “an extremely thoughtful leader who carefully considered every decision with a prudence that derived from a deep love for BME communities”.
Over the course of his career, Izatt has published more than 200 papers and received more than 75 U.S. patents, ABC11 reported.
He leaves behind a wife and three children, WRAL News added.
