The first confirmed in-service activation of Garmin’s Autoland set the general aviation community abuzz in late December and offered confirmation that the automated landing system can deploy as designed in an actual emergent situation.
A 1984 Beechcraft King Air B200 (N479BR, serial number BB-1179) 
unexpectedly demonstrated the technology that won the 2020 Robert J. Collier Trophy as “the world’s first certified autonomous system designed to activate during an emergency to safely fly and land an aircraft without human intervention.” Blackhawk Aerospace said it installed the Autoland feature on BB-1179 in February 2025 at Blackhawk’s Performance Center in Columbia, Missouri, and in a statement posted on Facebook the company said this historic maneuver moved the technology from theoretical to proven.
Garmin confirmed via a statement that “This was the first use of Autoland from start-to-finish in an actual emergency.”
BB-1179’s circumstances
According to the operator of the aircraft at the time, Buffalo River Aviation of Bentonville, Arkansas, BB-1179 experienced an in-flight emergency on Saturday, Dec. 20 after departing from Aspen, Colorado (KASE) on a FAR Part 91 reposition flight. There were two pilots and no passengers on board.
“Climbing through 23,000 feet msl, the aircraft experienced a rapid, uncommanded loss of pressurization. As per standard procedures, the two pilots immediately put on their oxygen masks,” the company’s CEO, Chris Townsley, said in a statement sent to media.
The statement went on to explain that “The aircraft, equipped with Garmin Aviation’s latest Emergency Descent Mode (EDM) and Autoland systems, automatically engaged exactly as designed when the cabin altitude exceeded the prescribed safe levels. The system selected a suitable airport per Garmin criteria (KBJC, Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport), navigated to it, and communicated automatically along the way.”
That automated communication included “November Four Seven Niner Bravo Romeo, pilot incapacitation, 2 miles south of Kilo Bravo Juliet Charlie. Emergency Autoland in 19 minutes on Runway Three Zero Right at Kilo Bravo Juliet Charlie.”
King Air in 2023.
The Autoland activation was quickly shared on social media due to other pilots hearing the aircraft squawking 7700 when inbound to KBJC. Online comments speculated on what may have caused the system to be initiated, which Townsley eventually cleared up in his statement: “Reports of pilot incapacitation are incorrect and result solely from the Garmin emergency system’s automated communication and reporting functions. In this case, the crew consciously elected to preserve and use all available tools and minimize additional variables in an unpredictable, emergent situation, prioritizing life and a safe outcome over all other factors, as they are trained to do.”
While many cases reference pilot incapacitation as an expected reason for engaging Autoland’s functionality, it is designed as a tool to assist in other emergency scenarios as well. The system cannot be used in nonemergency situations, and if the Autoland system is activated, a pilot can later deactivate it at their discretion.
“Due to the complexity of the specific situation, including instrument meteorological conditions, mountainous terrain, active icing conditions, unknown reasons for loss of pressure and the binary (all-or-nothing) function of the Garmin emergency systems, the pilots, exercising conservative judgment under their emergency command authority (FAR 91.3) made the decision to leave the system engaged while monitoring its performance and attempting communications as able within the constraints of the system,” Townsley stated. “While the system performed exactly as expected, the pilots were prepared to resume manual control of the aircraft should the system have malfunctioned in any way.”
BB-1179 was flown to Wiley Post Airport (KPWA) in Oklahoma City the next day and has continued to operate since without incident. Buffalo River Aviation praised its pilots for their judgment, as well as personnel at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport and Denver Center Tracon for their support.
Award-winning technology
Garmin first introduced Autoland in 2019 and achieved FAA type certification for equipping the system on Piper M600 single-engine turboprops, Cirrus SF50 Vision Jets and Daher TBM 940 single-engine turboprops in 2020. It is now certified for eight aircraft models, with eight more coming soon per the company’s website. There are now over 1,700 aircraft in service equipped with the technology, which is currently certified in the King Air 200 and King Air 300 series. Garmin Autoland and Autothrottle are available for retrofit on select King Air 200, 300 and 350 series aircraft equipped with G1000 NXi.
The National Aeronautic Association awarded its prestigious Collier
Trophy for 2020 to Garmin Autoland; the award recognizes the year’s greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America with respect to improving performance, efficiency, safety in air or space vehicles.
An article titled “First Impression: Wow!” by Tom Clements in the October 2023 issue of King Air magazine shared the author’s positive experience flying Garmin’s demonstrator/test King Air B200 equipped with the company’s Autothrottle and Autoland systems. As he explained, the Autoland sequence can be triggered by a pilot or passenger pushing the installed red Autoland button or the system can take over autonomously if it detects a pressurization loss or determines a pilot has become incapacitated.
“Since a lot of King Airs are flown with only one pilot, incapacitation of that person can have deadly consequences,” Clements wrote. “Autoland totally changes that! It is absolutely mind-blowing to read or hear about how the system works and all the actions it takes, but even more amazing to watch it happen! My hat is off to the Garmin engineers and test pilots: They seem to have hit a home run in the design and functionality of this never-before-seen option. Of course, the need to use this system should be and will be almost nonexistent. But when the pilot becomes too disabled to function, Autoland can turn a deadly tragedy into a nonevent.”