An Australian pilot made an emergency landing after wresting back the controls of his light aircraft from an 82-year-old passenger who grabbed them midflight, the aircraft's charter company said.
Police said the elderly man chartered the small four-seater Beechcraft Duchess plane on Monday for a business trip from the Sydney suburb of Bankstown to Cowra, a distance of about 186km.
He began acting erratically midway through the flight, moving to shut down the plane's engines and seizing the control stick, a spokesman for Australia by Air said.
The 23-year-old pilot restrained the passenger and made a distress call before safely landing the plane in a field, police said.
Police Inspector Mark Wall said the passenger was in a stable condition in hospital in Sydney, with injuries to his face. The pilot was treated for shock and discharged.
It was not immediately clear what caused the man to attempt to seize the plane.
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