--- title: American Airlines Pilot Michael Johnston Dies Mid-Flight | TIME description: The 57-year-old pilot died from a heart attack during a flight from Phoenix to Boston. The co-pilot was able to land the plane safely. canonical: https://time.com/video/YE6UgNhd/ og:title: American Airlines Pilot Michael Johnston Dies Mid-Flight og:description: The 57-year-old pilot died from a heart attack during a flight from Phoenix to Boston. The co-pilot was able to land the plane safely. og:url: https://time.com/video/YE6UgNhd/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YE6UgNhd/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: American Airlines Pilot Michael Johnston Dies Mid-Flight twitter:description: The 57-year-old pilot died from a heart attack during a flight from Phoenix to Boston. The co-pilot was able to land the plane safely. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YE6UgNhd/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # American Airlines Pilot Michael Johnston Dies Mid-Flight > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: American Airlines Pilot Michael Johnston Dies Mid-Flight [Watch (HLS stream): American Airlines Pilot Michael Johnston Dies Mid-Flight](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YE6UgNhd.m3u8) (1:11)  _Published 2015-10-06. The 57-year-old pilot died from a heart attack during a flight from Phoenix to Boston. The co-pilot was able to land the plane safely._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:56 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [American Airlines Is Retiring a Plane That Pilots and Passengers Both Love and Hate](/video/DzqlnJGm/) ### American Airlines Is Retiring a Plane That Pilots and Passengers Both Love and Hate [Pilots Say American Airlines Plane Rolled on Its Own and Hit a Sign During Takeoff](/video/U6IKCHIy/) ### Pilots Say American Airlines Plane Rolled on Its Own and Hit a Sign During Takeoff [American Airlines Officer Dies Mid-Flight](/video/yWpaOeDt/) ### American Airlines Officer Dies Mid-Flight --- ## Transcript An American Airlines flight from Phoenix to Boston had to make an emergency landing in Syracuse Monday morning, after one of its pilots died onboard from a heart attack. Captain Michael Johnston's wife says he had a double bypass surgery nine years ago, but was recently feeling healthy. As far as we knew, in perfect health. When he left yesterday he seemed perfectly fine. He'd spent the last week, couple weeks, working on losing weight. Had lost about ten pounds, and said, I felt better than I felt in a long time. Many expressed gratitude to the co pilot, who calmly took over, and successfully landed the plane carrying 147 passengers. Medical emergency, captain is incapacitated, request Handling for runway 1- 0 landing. Whatever happened in that cockpit, none of us will know. But that copilot did a great job. This is absolutely the reason that we have two fully qualified pilots in the cockpit, either one of them trained to the same standard. Medics tried, but were unable to revive Johnson when the plane landed in Syracuse. Passengers knew their pilot wasn't feeling well, but were only made aware that he had died hours later, once they were on a new flight with a new crew. 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