Woman with No Training Lands Plane After Pilot Husband Suffers Heart Attack in the Air

A woman with no formal pilot training landed a small plane in Bakersfield, Calif., after her pilot husband suffered a heart attack mid-flight on Friday, Oct. 4, according to a Federal Aviation Administration news release.

Eliot Alper, 78, was piloting a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 from Henderson, Nev., to Monterey, Calif., when he had a medical emergency beside his wife and sole passenger, Yvonne Kinane-Wells, 69, the Los Angeles Times reported. Alper, who married Kinane-Wells in February, was rushed to the hospital, where he later died, his real estate office confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, Oct. 7.

During the incident, Kinane-Wells, a real estate agent, was directed by air traffic control on how to pilot the aircraft, according to an audio recording obtained by Inside Edition. In the recordings, the air traffic controller instructed Kinane-Wells about the altitude and told her to change course to land at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield.

In additional audio PEOPLE obtained from LiveATC.net, recorded controllers and pilots monitoring the plane ensured Kinane-Wells’ radio was clear for emergency communication. A “passenger in the cockpit trying to figure out how to fly,” one controller says of Kinane-Wells and notes of the incapacitated pilot. 

She successfully landed the aircraft at 1:40 p.m. Then, upon landing, emergency vehicles chased the plane down the 11,000-foot runway until Kinane-Wells was able to stop the aircraft.

Ron Brewster, director of airports for Kern County, told Inside Edition that this incident, to his knowledge, is “unprecedented,” adding that he’s “never seen it in [his] entire career.”

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are conducting an investigation.

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Representatives for the FAA and the NTSB did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Wednesday.