Pilot thought his instructor was ‘pretending to take a nap.’ He was dead

Blackpool Airport after suffering cardiac arrest in the air last summer.According to a newly published safety report about the incident, the pilot he was accompanying didn’t notice his death — or rather, thought the dead man was pulling a prank on him.The incident occurred on June 29, 2022, when the pilot asked the instructor to accompany him on the flight.

Conditions were windy that day and “above (the pilot’s) personal limit to fly on his own,” but the man wanted to record a flight anyway to stay in good standing with his flying club’s requirements, according to the report by the U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch.The instructor agreed to fit in the short flight after he finished a lesson and later boarded the four-person Piper PA-28 plane.

Read more: Polish woman claims to be Madeleine McCann, shares ‘proof’ on social media Read next: Part of the Sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists The pair were talking normally as the pilot taxied to the runway, the report states.

The pilot recalls that the last thing he heard the instructor say was “looks good, there is nothing behind you,” just before takeoff.Shortly after the plane left the runway, the pilot says “the instructor’s head rolled back.”“The pilot knew the instructor well and thought he was just pretending to take a nap whilst the pilot flew the circuit, so he did not think anything was wrong at this stage,” the report reads.The pilot proceeded to fly the course as normal but as he turned at one point the instructor “slumped over” so that his head was resting on the pilot’s shoulder.“The pilot still thought the instructor was just joking with him and continued to fly the approach,” according to the report.