The 82-year-old passenger chartered the 50-minute flight from Bankstown to Cowra.

Just before 3pm the 23-year-old pilot, James Chandler, radioed in to say: “My passenger’s trying to take over ... woah, woah.”

A tense struggle is alleged to have ensued in the small cockpit of the 1978 Beechcraft Duchess.

Late yesterday police charged the elderly man with prejudice the safe operation of an aircraft.

He was granted bail and will appear in Parramatta Local Court on September 29.

Central West Flying pilot and instructor David Carroll praised the Mr Chandler’s actions.

“The mid-air emergency is  something you hope will never happen,” Mr Carroll said.

“You could hear the fear in his voice in the recording,” Mr Carroll said.

“We get taught if someone’s going to take over the plane you use whatever force is necessary ... an elbow to the face usually works.

“It’s whatever you can do to keep yourself safe ... it’s your life as well.”

Mr Carroll has flown in a Beechcraft Duchess a number of times and said the plane can be controlled from the passenger’s side.

“He’s [the pilot] got a control stick in front of him, so would the passenger, and he [the passenger] could have easily pushed the stick forward or pulled it back,” Mr Carroll said.  “He could [also] control the throttle ... it’s a dual-control aircraft.”

Mr Carroll said the cockpit of the four-seater fixed-wing aircraft is small and commended the pilot’s efforts to regain control of the plane.

“He would have had to stop it [the plane] from diving or spinning or rotating ... you could turn the aircraft too steep ... it could turn into a spin and you could lose control of the aircraft.”

“He did a very good job ... I’ve been in an emergency landing myself when an engine failed over Oberon Dam and it’s hard enough to land without all that happening,” he said.