Off-duty pilot helps land jet after captain ‘incapacitated’

An off-duty pilot flying as a passenger helped take control of a Southwest jet after the captain was “incapacitated” by a medical emergency.

Flight 6013 took off from Las Vegas just after 6:30 a.m. Wednesday when one of its on-duty pilots “needed medical attention” on the way to Columbus, Ohio, Southwest confirmed to The Post.

“A credentialed Pilot from another airline, who was on board, entered the Flight Deck and assisted with radio communication while our Southwest Pilot flew the aircraft,” said airline spokesperson Chris Perry. 

“We greatly appreciate their support and assistance.”

A nurse also on the flight then helped take care of the pilot, the airline said, without detailing his condition or what caused the medical emergency.

However, air traffic control audio — also obtained by CNN — showed a member of the flight crew raising the alarm that “the captain became incapacitated while en route. 

“He’s in the back of the aircraft right now with a flight attendant, but we need to get him on an ambulance immediately,” the crew member said.

The Boeing 737 was turned around, landing back in Vegas just before 8 a.m., data on FlightAware.com shows. A backup crew then boarded and took passengers to Columbus as planned, the airline told CNN.

Southwest said it was “standard procedure” to “request assistance from traveling medical personnel during in-flight medical events.”

“This situation just so happened to involve one of our Employees,” the airline said.

The incident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — which hours later issued separate alerts to airlines, pilots and others about the “need for continued vigilance and attention to mitigation of safety risks” after a series of high-profile near collisions.

Six serious runway incursions have occurred since January that prompted the agency to convene a safety summit last week. 

They include a near miss at JFK Airport in January, and a Southwest jet that recently came within 200 feet of slamming into an ambulance crossing the runway at Baltimore’s airport

“While the overall numbers do not reflect an increase in incidents and occurrences, the potential severity of these events is concerning,” the FAA said.

With Post wires