Continental pilot collapses in cockpit

From the "It's probably better you don't know what's going on in the cockpit" file comes the story of a Continental Airlines pilot who collapsed in flight Saturday aboard a flight from Houston to Puerto Vallarta. Fortunately, it didn't turn into a situation like one you'd see in a bad suspense movie — in fact, officials say the 210 people on board the flight were never in any danger.

The flight took off from Bush Intercontinental at around 11:30 a.m. Saturday; when the plane was about 200 miles south of the Texas-Mexico border, the pilot collapsed at the controls and the flight was diverted to McAllen for an emergency landing. "We waited for the plane to taxi to the jetway, and then we went onboard the plane," McAllen police Lt. Paulo Herrera, who responded to the call at the airport, told the Chronicle.. "The pilot was on the floor by the door. They had done compressions, CPR on him onboard the aircraft." The Newark, N.J.-based pilot, who had been flying for 20 years, was taken to a local hospital and was pronounced dead at 1:50 p.m.

McAllen police said they were told the pilot had a heart attack. So far, the autopsy has shown he died of natural causes, though the exact cause of death hasn't been determined yet. "We just have to pinpoint the cause," pathologist Frank Salinas, who conducted the autopsy, said. "I haven't ruled anything out."