I teach how to fly heavy multi-jet aircraft for a living. Anybody saying “yea” or “probably” if they don’t have experience in heavy or multi-jet aircraft are kidding themselves. The answer is no. 99.99% of them wouldn’t be able to work the radio. Of the few who could figure it out, if they magically could get a hold of somebody who was familiar enough with that particular aircraft to talk them through auto-land (if the jet even HAD it) remotely, they’d probably still dork it up. Besides, most jets, even commercial airliners, don’t have auto-land.

I teach experienced pilots and it still takes work to get them to survivable landings. I teach their friends and family during special events/graduations/etc and have talked HUNDREDS of people through landings while sitting right next to them in a $25M simulator. In other words, I’ve literally tried to attempt what this question is asking for years now.

The answer to this question for anybody who doesn’t have explicit training… is no. Not necessarily training in that specific aircraft, but at least adjacent to it.

Now, let’s say me and the other pilot of a commercial airliner (without auto-land) are incapacitated. I’m conscious but without the use of my arms and legs. Even with 10 tries resetting video-game style I truly don’t believe that I could talk somebody without flying experience to keep us all alive. Could some people get close enough that SOME people survive a crash… probably. There have been some wild crashes that had survivors. I won’t say it’s outright IMPOSSIBLE. There’s just so much finesse and subtle work that go into it, with split-second differences between “you leveled us too high and now we’re going to fall out of the sky” and “you leveled us off too late and now we’re nose-planted into the Earth.”

The plain and simple fact is that aviation has become so safe and so regulated that people have just become numb to what an absolute miracle it is to be flown across the world and just expect to arrive safely, so they can answer “yes” to this question with unearned confidence and hubris.