Can Someone With No Training Land a 737? Michelle Khare Tries It in a Full-Motion Simulator
Michelle Khare
Polls suggest many people believe they could land a passenger plane in an emergency. Michelle Khare says about one-third of Americans think they could do it with help from air traffic control. When she polled her own Instagram followers, 48% said they could land the plane with no prior training, and 84% said she could. She called that last number "absolutely insane." To test the question, she sat down in a high-fidelity Boeing 737 NG simulator, operated with help from Las Vegas Flight Academy, with no aviation training at all. The scenario was the classic nightmare: both pilots are incapacitated, the flight attendant asks whether anyone on board can fly, and a passenger has to take the controls.
Her only aviation background was a day spent training like an air traffic controller two years earlier. She noted that a controller works from the safety of the ground. In this simulator, she was in a motion cockpit that responds to every small input.
The Setup: A Real Motion Simulator and a Deliberately Hard Scenario
The instructor running the session, introduced as Jimmy (later "Jim"), played the role of air traffic control. He explained that the 737 NG simulator is a true motion platform, so everyone inside has to be strapped in. "If she hits the ground hard, we are going to hit the ground hard. This is no joke."
Before Michelle entered, Jim described the cockpit as a jigsaw puzzle for her. She would need to pick the correct seat, ideally the left one, which is the captain's seat. Then she would need to find the headset, put it on, and locate the button to talk to him. He warned that if establishing communication took too long, the aircraft could fly well past Las Vegas and possibly run out of fuel.
He also said the scenario would be "a heck of a challenge": engine fires and engine failures were planned. He framed these as problems that most seasoned pilots can recover from. The exercise was meant to show both what trained pilots handle routinely and how an untrained person copes with the same events.
The First Obstacle: Finding the Microphone
The first problem turned out to be the radio. Michelle called out "Hello? Is anyone from Air Traffic Control there?" but she was not transmitting. She described taking an "escape room mentality," scanning the panels for anything labeled "mic," "microphone," or "ATC," while convinced she was missing one simple button among what felt like "3,000 buttons." She guessed at labels aloud, at one point reading "nose wheel steering," and compared one control to a fishing reel. At one point she said this was how she would fail: by not being able to use the comms.
Eventually she reached Jim, who answered as a controller on a secure frequency and asked her to identify herself. She explained that everyone was incapacitated and she had to "drive this thing." When he asked for her position, altitude, and heading, all she knew was that the flight was going to Las Vegas. Jim said he thought he saw her on radar, off track, and confirmed she had no flight experience.
Getting Oriented: Seat Belt, Fuel, and Souls on Board
Jim's first instruction was simply to get buckled in. Michelle struggled with the harness, and Jim told her to slow down and let him know when each step was done. He introduced himself, told her everything would be okay, and explained the situation. She was in a 737 headed to Vegas. If the plane was stable, the autopilot was probably on. All other aircraft in the area had identified themselves, so she was the only one on the channel.
He then asked for two things: fuel quantity and the number of people on board. He directed her to the bottom right corner of the center screen, where she read 3,180 lb of fuel. She had no data showing the passenger count and asked whether she should go count. Jim asked her how full the cabin had looked, and she said the flight was completely full.
Michelle said that thinking about everyone on board raised the stakes for her. Even knowing it was a simulation, she expressed "immense gratitude and respect" for people who train for this and commit their careers to getting passengers home safely. Jim offered his own view on the poll numbers: if a third of Americans think they can land a plane, he loves it. He even wished 80% of people thought so, because if his family were on board, he would want confidence in the cockpit and whoever was there to be the best version of themselves. The video also noted that pilot incapacitation with a passenger taking the controls has happened in real life.
The Cost of Delay: A 360-Degree Turn via the Autopilot
Because Michelle took so long to find the comms, the plane was now too close to the airport to descend at a safe rate. Jim told her the plane should already have descended, so they would make a right 360-degree turn to lose altitude and get back where they needed to be.
That meant entering specific values into the autopilot. Jim asked whether she could see "268" on her dashboard. Michelle said there were so many numbers it might as well have been the digits of pi. He explained that the upper panel is the MCP, the autopilot control panel, and that it should show a group of numbers: 310 for airspeed, 268 for heading, and 24,000 for altitude. He told her to turn the heading knob clockwise from 268 to 020.
In a voiceover recorded later, Michelle explained what she had not understood at the time. She said that by then she had started training for a pilot's license for the next episode. A heading tells the plane which direction to fly on a 360-degree compass, and turning the dial clockwise commands a right turn. When the plane began banking and she asked why, Jim reassured her that turns happen on every flight.
She stressed that autopilot is not a button that hands control to an AI that flies everything. The pilot still has to tell it how fast to fly, what altitude to descend to, and how fast to descend. Following Jim's instructions, she reduced the airspeed, set the altitude to 22,000 feet, and set a vertical speed. Jim described the result as a nice, controlled descent. With the plane now headed toward the airport and speed and altitude under control, Michelle thanked Jim for staying calm. He told her to take a breath and that she was doing great.
Configuring for Landing
On the final stretch, Jim ran Michelle through the landing configuration. She lowered the landing gear by pulling the handle toward her and down. She reduced speed further, set the altitude to 8,000 feet, set the flaps to 15, and turned the autobrake to maximum. She said she was getting into a groove with Jim calling out instructions while she found knobs and changed numbers, that she now knew what flaps were, and that she thought she was getting the hang of it. Then she spotted the runway.
Losing the Autopilot
Then the scenario turned. Jim said there could be traffic around her and that she was a little off track. He suggested the autopilot "might have screwed up a little bit" and told her she might have to hand-fly. He had her press a button with her left thumb to disengage the autopilot. Almost immediately Michelle said the plane was going down very fast and asked what to do. Jim answered: "Land the plane and save us all."
Bird Strike, Engine Fire, and Engine Failure
The aircraft began to shake. Jim said birds had been reported in the area and asked whether she had hit one. Michelle read a warning on the display, "fire warn," and asked what it meant. Jim directed her to a lit handle on the lower right and told her to let go of the controls, pull the handle, and turn it. The video explained that this lets the pilot cut fuel to the affected engine and discharge a fire extinguisher into it.
Jim then told her she had lost the right engine. He had her push the thrust levers to full power and pointed her to the primary flight display (PFD), telling her to level off and keep the small square inside the magenta guidance lines.
This was where things fell apart. Michelle said nothing would make the plane turn left. Jim told her to push the left rudder pedal, and she said she was pushing as hard as she could. The aircraft kept overcorrecting. When Jim told her to take pressure off the yoke, she asked, "What's a yoke?" At other points he called for her to turn back right and come around toward the airport, and then to pull up. She replied that she couldn't pull up any harder and that the plane shook whenever she tried.
Michelle reflected that she had not had to raise her hand to step into the cockpit, but she had, and now she needed to follow through. She said the hardest part was translating Jim's instructions into actions while keeping the guidance lines inside a "microscopic box" on the display.
A Language Problem: "Power Back" Meant the Opposite of What She Did
One error came from vocabulary. When Jim told her to bring power back on the throttles, Michelle interpreted "pull the power back" as adding power. That is the opposite of what he meant, and the plane started climbing. Jim had to repeat it: "Pull it back. Not forward. Back. Slow." Michelle attributed the mistake to her lack of basic aviation terminology.
She compared flying with one engine out to controlling a car while hydroplaning. Over several attempts, she said, she kept making critical errors. Each attempt got her physically closer to the runway, but every one still ended in a crash. To land, she concluded, she would have to correct every one of those mistakes.
The Final Attempt
On the last attempt, Jim pointed her to a big gray knob in the center of the center console, which Michelle identified as the rudder, and told her to turn it left. She called the result "helpful but scary." He told her to bring the power back, slow down, keep the square in the magenta lines, and find a stable "sweet spot." When she pushed forward and started coming back in line, Jim told her, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing." He called out corrections as she dropped and told her to push the left rudder pedal. Michelle realized at that moment that the pedal worked like a brake in a car. Then he told her to push the right one.
The plane ended up on the ground. Jim said "Great work," and in the same breath said crash, fire, and rescue crews were on their way. Michelle asked whether she had crashed. His answer was that the plane "might need a maintenance check." He congratulated her for saving everyone. Michelle gave the credit to Jim and to air traffic controllers in general.
The Verdict
The video's conclusion was qualified. In Jim's words: "We didn't do it the way that normal airline pilots do it, but we got it on the ground." The aircraft reached the ground only after several crashed attempts, constant step-by-step guidance from a controller, and with emergency crews still dispatched afterward. Michelle's experience suggests the confidence in the poll numbers is far ahead of what an untrained person can actually do. A trained voice on the radio made the difference between repeated crashes and a rough arrival. The next step she announced was to start formal training toward a pilot's license.
Imagine you're sitting in your seat when the flight attendant says, "Can anyone on board fly this plane?" You learn that both pilots are incapacitated and unless you do something, this plane is going to crash.
Pull back. Pull back.
I can't pull up any harder.
If you were in this situation, do you think you could land this plane? Because apparently one-third of Americans think that they could land a passenger plane with assistance from air traffic control.
You guys requested it, so we are doing it. And in fact, I polled y'all on Instagram and apparently 48% of you believe that you could land this plane with no prior training, while 84% of you think that I could land this plane, which is absolutely insane. But either way, we're going to test it right now in this high-fidelity 737 simulator, where I am going to see if I could land a commercial aircraft with absolutely no training.
Challenge accepted.
When Michelle gets in the cockpit, it's going to be a jigsaw puzzle for her. She's got to figure out which seat to sit in. I hope she sits in the left seat because that's a captain's seat. But then she's got to find the headset. She's got to put it on and she's got to find the button to communicate with me.
Hello. Oh, here's the comm.
Today I'm going to be playing the role of ATC to communicate with her.
Is anyone from air traffic control there? Hello.
If she takes too long to establish communications, find the button and start talking to me, she could be well past Las Vegas and there's a chance that she could run out of fuel.
I'm sorry. This is how I fail today because I can't use the comms.
For this scenario, what's going to take place is going to be a heck of a challenge for her. We're going to give her engine fires. We're going to give her engine failures. But you're going to be able to see what seasoned pilots can recover from because most seasoned pilots can recover from what we're going to give her.
Hello. So, I think to myself, okay, escape room mentality. So, I'm scanning all these buttons. I'm looking for something that might say mic or microphone or ATC. I know this is just a simple button I'm missing. There are like 3,000 buttons. Why is this happening? This looks like a fishing reel. Nose wheel steering. Mic. Hello. Is anyone there? Please answer.
This is a secure frequency. Identify yourself.
Hi, thank you. Thank you for answering. I am on a plane. Everyone is incapacitated and I have to drive this thing. Can you please help me?
Okay. Can you tell me where you are, what altitude, and what heading you're on?
I'm on a flight to Las Vegas. I don't know anything else.
Okay. I think I see you on radar. It looks like you're off track. Obviously, you don't have any flight experience. Is that correct?
No, I do not know what I'm doing. Now, my only experience in aviation was two years ago when I spent a day training like an air traffic controller. But an air traffic controller has the comfort of being on the ground. Here I am in a motion simulator that is so sensitive and so realistic that every little micro change I make in this plane I feel.
So the 737 NG simulator that we're going to be in is actual motion. Everybody that's going to be in there needs to be strapped down. If she hits the ground hard, we are going to hit the ground hard. This is no joke.
Okay. So the first thing I need you to do is I need you to get buckled into your seat in a good position. Okay. What's your name?
I'm Michelle.
Okay, Michelle. I'm Jimmy. I'm going to help you through this. Everything's going to be okay. All right.
I can't even put a seat belt on.
Michelle, I need to slow you down. So, let me know when you can do something. Okay.
Okay. I have a seat belt on.
Okay. You're in a 737. You're on the way to Vegas. I would imagine if the plane is stable, your autopilot is on. All the aircraft in the area have identified themselves and you're the only one on this channel. So, let's work through together and get this taken care of. I need you to tell me how much fuel you have and how many people on board.
Okay. How do I know that?
If you go to your center screen in the bottom right-hand corner, it'll show you a fuel quantity. Do you see it?
3,180 lb.
Okay. How many people are on the plane?
Is that on any of the data here or should I go count?
How many people did you see back there? Was it full? Was it half full? Or what do you think?
Being in this position and thinking about the responsibility of all of the souls on board really escalates the stakes for me. The flight is completely full.
Okay. And I know this is a simulation and it's not real, but I have immense gratitude and respect for anyone who is actually trained to do this and has committed their life to helping people get to their destination safely.
If a third of the Americans think they can land the plane, I love it. If my family's on board, I want confidence in the cockpit.
And the crazy part is this scenario where pilots have become incapacitated has actually happened in real life before.
It's every passenger's nightmare. The pilot falls ill and the passenger who has no idea how to fly the plane is forced to take the controls.
I have no idea how to fly the airplane.
I wish 80% of the population thought they could do it. Because really when it comes down to it, we want the best version of themselves in that cockpit to take care of our families and get them safe.
Here's what I need you to do. We're getting real close to where we need to be and you should have descended. So what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to make a right 360.
Jim informs me that because the plane is stable, autopilot is working. However, because I took so long to figure out how to use the comms, now we are too close to the airport for the plane to descend at a safe pace.
We're going to do a loop around and we're going to come down and get back where we need to be.
And so I have to find and input extremely specific numbers in order to tell the plane exactly what I need it to do.
Do you see a 268 on your dashboard?
There are so many numbers. It could literally be all the digits of pi in front of me and I would... Okay, say again what I should be looking for.
So, there's an upper dashboard which we call the MCP panel. That's our autopilot control panel there. It should have a group of four numbers on it. 310 should be your airspeed. 268 should be your heading and 24,000 should be your altitude. Do you see it?
Yes, I do see it.
Where it says 268, take it and turn it to the right clockwise till it says 020.
Hello, a future, more educated Michelle here because in the episode after this one, I am going to school to attempt to get my pilot's license to learn how to fly a real plane, which is crazy. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss that one.
Anyways, what Jim is asking me to do here that past Michelle did not understand is changing the heading. Adjusting a heading tells the plane which direction to go in based on a 360-degree compass, just like the degrees of a circle. As I rotate this dial clockwise, I'm now telling the plane to make a right turn. Wait. Why is this happening?
You're going to have a couple turns, so it's going to be okay. Happens every time you fly.
But autopilot isn't some button you push and an AI takes over and completely flies the plane. You still have to tell it how fast to go. IAS/MACH.
That's going to slow us down. That's your airspeed right there.
What elevation to descend to.
Make it 22,000, please.
And even how fast we descend to that elevation.
That's our vertical speed. Now we're coming down in a nice controlled descent.
Okay, so now we're headed towards the airport.
Yep, we're headed towards the airport. Your speed's under control. Your altitude's under control.
Okay, thanks for being so calm.
You got this. Just take a deep breath for a minute. You're doing great.
We are in the final stretch. It is time for the moment we have been waiting for, the landing. And this is do or die.
Okay, Michelle. I want you to put the gear down.
The landing gear?
Yeah. Pull it out towards you and put it down.
I'm getting in this groove with Jim where he's yelling at me.
I want you to slow down more.
I'm finding the knobs. I'm twisting them. I'm changing all the numbers.
Change that altitude to 8,000.
Okay, done. I'm learning about things like flaps.
We got to go flap 15.
Done. I know what flaps are now. And I think I'm actually getting the hang of this.
Take autobrake. We want to turn it all the way to max.
We definitely want brakes. Okay, I see the runway now.
Okay, we're coming into Vegas and there could be traffic coming around you. I see you off track a little bit. I'm thinking the autopilot might have screwed up a little bit here. You might have to hand-fly it.
What? We're really close to the runway, Jim.
What I need you to do is push with your left thumb and turn the autopilot off.
Okay, I'm pushing. Autopilot disengage.
We're going down really fast. This doesn't seem right. Tell me what to do. Tell me what to do.
Land the plane and save us all. Michelle, you can do it.
What?
Wait, what's that? Why is it shaking?
We've been reported that there are birds in the area here. Did you hit a bird?
It says fire warn. What does that mean?
Look down on the right. Do you see a handle lit up?
I do. Yes.
I want you to pull up on that handle.
So, let go of the steering wheel.
Pull the handle. Pull the handle and turn it.
When an engine fire is detected...
Okay, done.
The pilot is able to cut off all fuel to the affected engine.
And it's still going.
And discharge a fire extinguisher to immediately extinguish the flames.
All right, you lost the right engine.
What?
I need you to add full power to the plane right now. Full power. Thrust levers. Full forward.
Done.
Right in front of you is what we call the PFD, the primary flight display. I need you to try to level off.
It's not turning left. Nothing is making this thing turn left.
Try to put the little square in the magenta. Try to push with your left rudder.
I'm pushing as hard as I can.
Okay, let's try to get you stabilized out. Okay.
It just keeps overcorrecting. This is so much pressure. And I didn't have to raise my hand to step into the cockpit, but I did and I need to follow through. Nothing's happening.
Take the pressure off the yoke.
Off the yoke. What's a yoke?
Try to level off and left rudder.
Oh my God.
Michelle, turn back to the right. See if you can come all the way around.
Pull back. Pull back. Pull back. Pull up.
I can't pull up.
It says fire warn. What does that mean?
It looks like you have an engine fire. We need to get you on the ground. Can you turn back towards the airport?
It keeps shaking when I do that.
Push to your left rudder. I want you to hold the left pedal in.
Why is this so hard? But the hardest thing about this whole situation has been trying to translate what Jim is asking me to do while also keeping these lines inside this microscopic box.
Okay, bring power back on the throttles and push hard with your left foot.
Oh my God. Why is it... We're going up now. Why? Because of my lack of comprehension of basic aviation terms. When Jim asks me to pull the power back, I've translated that to more power, which is in fact the opposite of what he was asking me to do.
No, you're going up. Pull it back. Pull it back. Not forward. Back. Slow. Pull your power back. Pull your power back.
We shall get this thing under control. You can do it.
But with each new attempt—oh my God—I continue to make critical errors. Trying to control the plane with one engine down is sort of like trying to control a car when it's hydroplaning.
I am pulling up.
While I was getting physically closer and closer to the runway with each attempt, my errors still always led to a crash. What did I do wrong? So, if I'm going to land this plane, I'm going to have to correct every single mistake. I feel like you keep veering right.
In the center of the center console, it's a big gray knob.
The rudder.
Yep. Turn it to the left.
Oh my God. Okay, I did that. That was helpful but scary.
Bring the power back. Go slower and keep your square in the magenta lines. Try to make it stable. Find your sweet spot there.
Oh my God. Oh my God. Okay, so I'm pushing it forward.
Whatever you're doing, keep doing. You're coming back in line.
Gosh, I can do this. Oh my God.
Pull back. I see you drop. Pull back. Light.
Push on your left rudder with your left foot.
Oh, literally that's a brake like in a car. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
Now push the right one. Awesome. Great work. We got crash, fire, and rescue headed out to you right now.
Did I crash the plane?
It might need a maintenance check.
You did a great job, Michelle. Congratulations. You saved us all.
All the thanks goes to you, Jim, and to all the air traffic controllers.
We didn't do it the way that normal airline pilots do it, but we got it on the ground.
If you enjoyed this episode, I think you will love this playlist of all of our aviation explorations from flight attendant academy to training like an air traffic controller at the FAA Academy to even hanging off the side of a plane like Tom Cruise. Hope you go check it out. Don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you in the next.
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