Kari Sorensen Provided Vital Aircraft Information

The Connecticut flight instructor who helped controllers in Florida successfully talk down an inexperienced single-engine-rated pilot in a Beech King Air 200 on Sunday was downsized out of his last job as a corporate pilot.

The Danbury News-Times reports Kari Sorensen got the long-distance call from controller and good friend Dan Favio, but quickly realized it was not just a "Happy Easter" call. Favio said somberly, "I have an emergency, and I need you."

Favio became friends with Sorenson while working as a controller at Danbury for two years. He tells the paper, "He's the most knowledgeable man about airplanes that I know. In order for us to get these people down safely, we were going to need specific information, like flap speed and approach speed, and Kari can just rattle that stuff off."

The Associated Press reports passenger-turned-pilot Doug White described the beginning of the emergency. He says the original pilot, Joe Cabuk, tilted his head back, made a guttural noise and lost consciousness. The plane was on autopilot at the time, climbing through 10,000 feet out of Marco Island, FL.

White's company, White Equipment Leasing in Louisiana, owns the B200. White had 150 hours in a single-engine Cessna, but had no experience in the big twin turboprop. But he knew how to use the radio, and knew enough to realize he needed help from someone familiar with the plane.

Favio, who was on his lunch break at the tower when the emergency broke, happened to have Sorenson's phone number in a speed-dial on his cellphone. But had the incident happened a day later, that call might not have been possible.

Favio says that after he left work, his phone died in the middle of his next call... taking his personal list of numbers with it.

He later commented to the News-Times, "It wasn't just the battery. It died completely. I had to get a new one this morning. And I didn't have his number memorized."

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.natca.org