Las Vegas woman lands plane after pilot husband suffers medical emergency
A Las Vegas businessman suffered a medical emergency while flying his small plane on Friday — forcing the passenger on board, his wife, to land the aircraft.
Eliot Alper, real estate broker and founder of Spacefinders and Ramrod Realty, and his wife, Yvonne Kinane-Wells, flew out of Henderson Executive Airport and were headed to Monterey Regional Airport. While flying his twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90, Alper became “incapacitated,” according to Kern County Fire Department who responded to the incident.
Kinane-Wells took control of the aircraft with help from air traffic controllers and made an emergency landing in Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California, at 1:40 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed. Upon landing, emergency vehicles chased the plane down the runway and met it as it came to a stop. Alper was rushed to the hospital; no other injuries were reported.
Alper later died, his real estate office confirmed on Monday. He was 78. He and Kinane-Wells were married in February.
Alper’s father, Arby Alper, founded Sky Harbor Airport in 1967, which was subsequently sold to Clark County and renamed Henderson Executive Airport in 1996. Eliot Alper was an avid pilot and volunteer with Angel Flight West, which provides donated flights to people with health care or human needs.
Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.