By Minyvonne
Burke
The passenger who managed to land a single-engine plane after the pilot passed out said he didn't have time to panic because he knew it was a "life or death situation".
Darren Harrison has been praised for his heroic actions, after he landed a Cessna 208 plane flying from the Bahamas to Florida on Tuesday, May 10.
Harrison, who has no flying experience, was one of two passengers on the plane when the pilot said he wasn't feeling well and then lost consciousness.
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“Somebody asked me the other day what my heart rate was or what I thought my heart rate was when all that was going on, and I said probably in the 90s. And then they said, and when was it all over?
And I said it was probably 160," Harrison told Savannah Guthrie in an exclusive interview on NBC's
TODAY
show.
Harrison climbed three rows of seats into the cockpit as the plane was in a dive and pushed the unconscious pilot aside to put on his headset to alert air traffic controllers of the emergency.
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May 14, 202200:58
“I have a serious situation here.
My pilot is incoherent.
I have no idea how to fly the plane,” Harrison said, according to audio of the call he made to air traffic control at the Fort Pierce tower.
Air traffic controllers, including flight instructor Robert
Bobby
Morgan, gave him instructions on how to fly and land the plane safely at Palm Beach International Airport.
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Harrison told
TODAY
that he couldn't panic because he knew it was a serious situation.
"When I stopped the plane, that's when it hit me," he said.
“I was pretty calm and collected the whole time, because I knew it was a life or death situation.
Either you do what you have to do to control the situation or you're going to die.
And that is what I did".
Capture of a video from the WPTV channel showing emergency personnel attending to the plane that landed Darren Harrison at Palm Beach International Airport, on May 10.AP
An incident report from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office notes that a call was received around 12:27 p.m. about an unconscious pilot with "three souls on board."
Approximately 10 minutes after the call, at about 12:38 pm, the plane landed safely.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the case.
Harrison's full interview with Guthrie will air this Monday on
TODAY
.