From the passenger cabin, nothing seemed amiss.
Food and drink service continued normally. The crew had requested help from any doctors on board, but nothing seemed to come of it, passengers said. The eight-hour flight from Brussels landed routinely here about noon Thursday.

Unbeknownst to the 247 passengers on Continental Flight 61, the captain, a 60-year-old veteran of the airline, had died over the Atlantic of a suspected heart attack. The co-pilot and a reserve pilot, who was in the cockpit to allow the regular pilots to rest, took over and finished the flight.

On Friday the captain was identified by his wife, Lynda Lenell, who said her husband, Craig Lenell, had no known heart condition and underwent twice-a-year physicals. Lynda Lenell told Houston's KHOU-TV that her husband was in "perfect health" and fellow crew members initially thought he had just fallen asleep.

"He was the kindest, gentlest man I've ever known. He would do anything for anyone," Lynda Lenell said. "He called me yesterday from Brussels to tell me he was bringing home some chocolate."

She told the TV station that her husband was an Air Force pilot who served in Vietnam. The couple married in 1973 and had six children and several grandchildren.

"Flying was his life," she said. "He died doing what made him happiest."

Passenger Dora Dekeyser, 70, of Houston said she didn't know anything was amiss until her daughter told her by cellphone after the jet landed. "Mom, your flight is on the news," Dekeyser said her daughter told her. "It was a shock, but at least we were already on the ground when I found out."

While the event triggered a frenzy of news coverage, the atmosphere over the Atlantic was calm, according to passengers and information released by the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration. There were "no announcements, no panic, no nothing," said Simon Shapiro of Brooklyn, N.Y., a first-class passenger.

Dr. Julien Struyven, 72, a cardiologist and radiologist from Brussels, examined the pilot in the cockpit and tried to revive him using a defibrillator. But it was too late. Struyven said there was "no chance at all" of saving him.

Such incidents are rare

A single pilot can land a jet airliner without help in an emergency. A review of National Transportation Safety Board records indicates that pilots or other crewmembers have become incapacitated 24 times since 1982, not counting Thursday's incident.

Because a third pilot was in the cockpit, it wasn't necessary for one pilot to do everything on the Continental Boeing 777 after the assigned pilot died, the airline said.

Taking over the controls would be routine for the two co-pilots, said John Cox, a former airline pilot who is now an aviation safety consultant.

"There's two fully qualified first officers. They've landed the plane hundreds of times before," Cox said. "Either one of them is qualified to command the airplane."

Continental trains its co-pilots as if they were captains, exceeding federal requirements, said spokesman David Messing.

Both of the unidentified pilots would have had to pass tests certifying that they were intimately familiar with the 777. They also would have had to demonstrate that they could fly the 777 from the captain's seat on the left side of the cockpit.

The incident could raise concerns about whether pilots should continue flying after age 60. On Dec. 13, 2007, Congress lifted restrictions that had forced pilots to retire when they turned 60. Now the mandatory retirement age is 65.

Federal law requires at least two pilots on flights. Each crewmember serves as a check and backup for the other. Though deaths and temporary severe illnesses are rare for flight crews, many of the previous incidents were not as routine as the Continental flight.

A Delta Airlines Lockheed L-1011 was damaged on Aug. 25, 1987, in Atlanta when the captain became incapacitated shortly before touchdown, according to the NTSB. The captain underwent bypass surgery 17 days later.

On May 4, 1992, a United Airlines captain died shortly before takeoff from Denver. The co-pilot noticed the captain had slumped over the control wheel and was making a "gurgling noise," the NTSB said.

Another Continental captain died on Jan. 20, 2007, while flying from Houston to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Pilots and flight attendants have become incapacitated from breathing carbon monoxide, failing to don oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure, or failing to eat enough. None of the cases caused injuries or deaths to passengers, the NTSB said.

In-flight request for help

Several passengers aboard Continental Flight 61 recalled hearing a public address request for doctors to come forward in the jet.

Robin Isacson, a Belgian businessman traveling on business, said he saw about a half-dozen doctors respond. "And later, they all came back and no one seemed to suggest there was any problem. They all seemed relaxed, so we all thought someone had a headache or something," Isacson said.

One of those who responded was Julien Struyven, 72, a cardiologist and radiologist from Brussels. By the time he reached the captain, "he was clinically dead," Struyven said. He tried to resuscitate the pilot, but "it was too late."

The plane was met at Newark by firetrucks and ambulances — the first time most passengers realized there was a problem on the flight.

"This is more upsetting than anything on the flight," said Martha Love of Stewartsville, N.J., referring to the news media covering the flight's arrival.