A pilot thought his flight instructor was playing a prank on him when the man actually died of a cardiac arrest during take-off, a report has heard.
The 57-year-old man had agreed to accompany a qualified pilot on a flight from Blackpool Airport in Lancashire, UK, to another airfield on June 29, 2022, when the medical emergency occurred.
The instructor "suffered a sudden fatal heart attack" as the Piper PA-28-161 took off, but the pilot admitted he saw the man's head roll back but did not think anything of it.
The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report states that the pilot had been good friends with the instructor and believed he was just pretending to be asleep at the time.
The report from February 9 states: "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 pilot revealed that the instructor slumped over in his seat a short time later, before his head fell onto the pilot's shoulder, but he still believed his friend was joking around.
When the plane landed, the pilot finally realized something was seriously wrong with his friend, and crews tried to revive him but were unsuccessful.
The instructor had a history of high blood pressure and had been on medication to control it since 2002 according to the report.
His cause of death was ruled to be acute cardiac failure, with a blood clot being found in his heart, as well as signs of "diffuse atheromatous disease," which is when the arteries become clogged.
The pilot had not seen any abnormal signs from the instructor while the plane was about to take off, and others who had seen the man on the day he died had said he seemed normal and did not appear to be feeling unwell.
The cardiac arrest appeared to come on suddenly as the report added: "The three people who had flown with him for the trial lesson just prior to the incident flight said he seemed well and nothing abnormal had occurred."
The man was an experienced flier, having logged almost 9,000 flying hours, including 184 in the 90 days before he died.
He had been employed as a full-time senior flight instructor, and the report added that it was fortunate that he died while on board with another pilot who was capable of safely landing the light aircraft without assistance.
The AAIB said: "Had this occurred on another flight the outcome could have been different. No tests or assessment can give a 100 percent reliable detection of cardiac issues."
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