On November 22, 2023, the captain of Air Transat flight TS186 suffered such a severe nosebleed on the way to Punta Cana that he was no longer able to carry out his duties. The passengers were lucky: another captain of the airline, who happened to be on board as a passenger, jumped in.

The Airbus A330-200 took off from Toronto and at first everything looked like an ordinary holiday flight to the Dominican Republic. Suddenly the captain on duty got a very bad nosebleed, which he was able to stop. After consultation with his first officer, he declared himself no longer able to carry out his duties.

There was another Airbus A330-200 captain from Air Transat in the passenger compartment. This one was on his way on vacation. The first officer and the captain, who was limited because of the nosebleed, asked him if he would be willing to take over as commander. He agreed to this and was in charge from then on.

In principle, it would not have been necessary to “complete” the cockpit crew, since the first officer is also a trained pilot and precisely for the reason that if one of the two pilots were to fail - for whatever reason - you would have two pilots on duty. However, it often happens that if there happens to be another pilot from the same airline with a suitable type rating on board, they will be asked for help if it is necessary.

In the specific situation, the first officer and captain thought it was right to ask their colleagues, who were actually off duty, for help and thus to take over command. This is a common practice. The “replacement captain” and the first officer then landed the Airbus A330-200 safely at its destination in Punta Cana.

The airline Air Transat confirmed the incident upon request and explained that the captain who was actually on duty became incapacitated about three hours after takeoff. It was confirmed that an identically qualified Air Transat captain was on board privately and stepped in at the pilots' request. The carrier thanks the employees for their professional and exemplary behavior, but at the same time emphasizes that there would have been no danger to the crew, aircraft and passengers even if there had been no replacement captain on board. All pilots are trained for situations in which one of the two aircraft pilots is unable to act and are able to fly the aircraft alone safely to the destination or to the nearest possible landing site, depending on what the specific situation requires, and to land there safely .

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada issued the following statement on the matter: “A flight crew member became incapacitated approximately three hours into the flight. A qualified Company pilot, flying as a passenger, replaced the absent flight crew member and the aircraft continued its flight to its intended destination without further incident.”