In March 2001, during what should have been a relaxed family holiday in Kenya, British comic actor Rowan Atkinson, best known worldwide for his bumbling character Mr Bean, found himself in a frightening and extraordinary real-life situation that tested his calm under pressure and turned a potential disaster into a story of quick thinking and courage.

Atkinson, then 46, had chartered a small Cessna light aircraft to fly his wife at the time, Sunetra Sastry and their two young children, Ben and Lily, from the coastal town of Mombasa to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport as part of their Kenyan getaway.

The journey, a routine 75-minute hop over Kenya’s sweeping inland landscapes, took a dramatic turn roughly halfway through when the pilot suddenly lost consciousness at about 16 000 feet in the air.

According to reports at the time, Atkinson and Sunetra were jolted by the unnerving sight of the pilot slumping forward with closed eyes.

With the aircraft beginning to lurch from side to side and the nose dipping alarmingly, it became clear that something was seriously wrong.

Sunetra frantically tried to revive the pilot, shaking him and even splashing water in an attempt to bring him around, while Atkinson faced the stark reality that if no one intervened, the aircraft could plunge out of control.

Although he had never flown a plane before, Atkinson did something almost unbelievable: he climbed into the co-pilot’s seat and took hold of the controls.

In that tense moment, with his family watching in terror, he focused on keeping the small aircraft stable and airborne.

While the extent of automatic systems in a Cessna means it doesn’t simply fly itself, his ability to maintain a steady course long enough for help to arrive was crucial.

Remarkably, after a few heart-stopping minutes, the pilot regained consciousness, apparently unaware of the emergency he’d just caused.

Once alert, he took back the controls and completed the flight safely, landing at Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The ordeal concluded without injuries, leaving Atkinson and his family shaken but safe.

The incident, widely reported by international news outlets such as News24 and The Star, captured headlines across the world because it seemed almost unreal: a comedian famous for playing an accident-prone character was thrust into a real crisis and responded with unexpected composure.

Atkinson, whose Mr Bean persona is defined by chaotic situations and silent physical comedy, demonstrated a very different kind of capability that day; staying calm and acting decisively when lives were at stake.

After landing, the family reported the episode to Kenyan aviation authorities and continued their travels, eventually returning to the UK on a scheduled flight.

While Atkinson later continued his successful career in entertainment, this mid-air crisis during a Kenyan holiday remains one of the most astonishing anecdotes from his life; an episode where the man behind Mr Bean became, for a moment, much more than a comic character: a quick-thinking protector of his family high above the African sky.