Updated December 23, 2025 – Originally it was reported that the pilot of N479BR was incapacitated, resulting in the Garmin autopilot landing the aircraft at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. However, Buffalo River Aviation, the company that operates the aircraft, issued a statement to CBS  Colorado, clearing up what took place.

At the time of the incident, there were two pilots on board with no passengers. When they climbed through 23,000 feet, the aircraft suffered a “rapid, uncommanded loss of pressurization”. As a result, the crew put on their oxygen masks per the company’s standard operating procedure (SOP).

The Garmin Emergency Descent Mode (EDM) automatically activated, and the pilots allowed the Autoland system to take over. Fortunately, neither pilots were incapacitated as originally reported, and this confusion came about because of the synthetic message being broadcasted during the emergency.

When the aircraft landed, they were attended to by medical personal but did not require treatment and were not taken to the hospital.

The company’s CEO Chris Townsley said he was “grateful to the pilots for their exceptional judgment and execution of protocols” and also thanked the relevant airport and emergency personnel who dealt with the situation. The matter is also being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.   

I’m not a pilot, so I won’t try to give an opinion on a situation I’m not familiar with, but with two pilots on board with sufficient oxygen, did their use of the Autoland system seem excessive? If they were not incapacitated according to the company’s CEO, could they have at least radioed in to let ATC know what was going on?

On the other hand, hypoxia is no laughing matter, and it’s understandable why the pilots may have wanted to take the safer approach and reduce the workload to conserve their emergency supply.

I’d like to hear in the comments what you think.

Original Story – posted December 22, 2025

If you’re an AVGeek, you may have seen videos about Garmin’s Autonomi suite, featuring an Autoland feature specifically for emergency situations.

Unlike larger jetliners that routinely use Autoland at certain airports when visibility is really bad, the Garmin Autoland feature is intended for more dire/emergency situations such as pilot incapacitation or impairment, passenger-only scenarios, or single-pilot operations where they may feel overwhelmed dealing with an emergency while trapped in bad weather for instance. According to Garmin, this should only be used if its safer for the aircraft to autoland rather than having a struggling pilot try to do so manually.

On December 20, this system was put to the real test when the pilot of a Beech B200 Super King Air (registered N479BR) heading from Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (ASE) became incapacitated at some point during the flight. As a result, the Garmin Autoland system was triggered, and set itself up to land on runway 30 right at was Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC).

In the VAS Aviation video below, you can hear the computer-generated voice transmitting on frequency, declaring an emergency and advising of its intentions.

“N479BR, pilot incapacitation. 2 miles south of KBJC. Emergency autolanding, 19 minutes from runway 30R at KBJC.”

RADIO AUDIO | Plane Auto-Lands by Itself and Saves Pilots' Lives!

Air traffic control worked with other aircraft in the area to clear a path for N479BR, which successfully landed at 2:19 p.m., coming safely to a stop shortly after. Emergency services quickly attended to the aircraft after. It’s not clear how many people were on board, nor is there any further information about the status of the pilot.

In a statement to various media outlets, Garmin confirmed that this was the first time their Autoland feature was used to guide the aircraft in distress to safety. They also promised to provide a full debrief in the future once the incident is fully investigated.

The Garmin Autoland system can either be manually or automatically activated. If it detects that there hasn’t been input, or it figures the pilot is incapacitated, it will take full control of the aircraft after a set period of time. It will manage everything from the surface inputs, throttle control, navigation, automated air traffic communication, and will even brake and shut down the engines once it has come to a stop on the ground.

The aircraft first levels itself, determining safe speeds and altitudes, while it computes the best arriving airport that meets its specifications. It will consider variables such as weather, terrain, runway length, fuel on board, available approach options, among other things.

Once it confirms this, it will squawk the general emergency code 7700, and will broadcast an automated voice, alerting the relevant air traffic stations that the aircraft is in emergency autoland mode, briefing them of the arriving airport, landing runway, speeds, altitude and position.

At this point, there is nothing ATC can really do other than get any traffic out of its path to make the approach as easy as possible. Once the aircraft lines itself up for the approach, it will perform the autolanding, and will apply the relevant braking until it comes to a safe stop. The system will even shut the engines down so that emergency services would be able to quickly attend to those on board.

n479br autoland route
Credit: FlightAware

From the replay, the aircraft performed a very consistent descent into BJC, even performing an orbit just before final, most likely as part of its measure to reach the required altitude to start the final approach.

This is definitely one of those noteworthy moments in the aviation industry. Assuming there was just one pilot on board, if this system were not in place, unfortunately this aircraft would have run out of fuel, resulting in the pilot’s death.

Here’s a video of the system being demonstrated in manual mode.

King Air Emergency Autoland Demo

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