Co-pilot briefly faints on flight to Las Vegas

The pilot of an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Las Vegas requested emergency landing priority Tuesday evening after the co-pilot fainted briefly.

Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan says Flight 606, with 146 passengers on board, landed safely at about 5:26 p.m. at Las Vegas International Airport.

The male co-pilot was taken to a hospital to be evaluated. Egan says he earlier was checked by a doctor who had been aboard the flight. She said she did not know whether he was admitted to the hospital and declined to release any more information about him.

The spokeswoman says the co-pilot was current on his required yearly medical evaluation.

KOMO-TV reports the incident happened about a half-hour before landing while the plane was on auto-pilot.

Egan says the pilot requested emergency landing priority as a safety precaution, to get priority handling for the medical issue.

She says the pilot landed the plane.