A normal flight, except the pilot died

The only inkling passengers had that something was wrong on the Continental Airlines flight over the Atlantic Ocean was when a crew member asked over the loudspeaker whether a doctor was on board.

Otherwise, flight attendants continued to serve snacks. Passengers read magazines and watched movies. And the flight stayed on schedule.

But in the cockpit, the 60-year-old captain had died of a suspected heart attack and two co-pilots took over the controls. The 247 passengers did not learn what had happened until the flight from Brussels landed safely Thursday and was met by firetrucks, emergency vehicles and dozens of reporters.

“I was shocked,” said Dora Dekeyser of Houston. “Nobody knew anything.”

“We weren’t panicking. I never thought it was something as serious as this. We were relaxed,” said Dekeyser’s granddaughter, Stephanie Mallis, 18, of Lansdale, Pa.

After the crew’s question about a doctor, several passengers approached the Boeing 777’s cockpit, including a physician who said the pilot appeared to have suffered a heart attack.

Dr. Julien Struyven, 72, a cardiologist and radiologist from Brussels, examined the pilot in the cockpit and tried to revive him using a defibrillator. But it was too late.

“He was not alive,” Struyven said. There was “no chance at all” of saving him.

The dead pilot was based in Newark and had worked for Continental for 32 years, the airline said. Continental did not release his name. A source speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information identified him as Craig Lenell.

Tom Donaldson, a former leader of the Continental pilots union who flies Boeing 767 jets for the airline, said pilots must pass an extensive physical every six months to remain qualified to fly. The exam includes an electrocardiogram, a blood pressure check and a vision test.

For long routes such as trans-Atlantic flights, a third pilot is aboard to permit the captain or first officer to take breaks.

Donaldson said there was no specific training on how to react if a crew member became incapacitated, but any of the three pilots was qualified to fly the jet.

“Clearly you want another set of eyes watching when you’re going down a checklist, but you’re capable of flying the airplane yourself,” he said. “You can put the gears down, put the flaps down and carry out your other duties by yourself in an emergency.”

On Thursday’s flight, Martha Love of Greenwich, N.J., was sitting in the first row. She said passengers were not told what was going on.

“No one knew,” she said. She became concerned only after the plane landed, when she saw emergency vehicles along the runway.

In 2007, another Continental pilot died at the controls after becoming ill during a flight from Houston to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It landed safely with a co-pilot at the controls after being diverted to McAllen, Texas.