Passengers recount terror during pilot's breakdown on JetBlue flight
Source: Agencies |
March 29, 2012, Thursday
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PASSENGERS aboard a flight from New York to Las Vegas first noticed something wrong when the plane's top pilot came out of the cockpit, didn't close the door and tried to force his way into an occupied bathroom.
The JetBlue captain's co-workers tried to calm him as he became more jittery, coaxing him to the back of the plane while making sure that he didn't get near the plane's controls.
Then he sprinted up the cabin's aisle ranting about a bomb, screaming "They're going to take us down!" and urging passengers to pray.
"Nobody knew what to do because he is the captain of the plane," said passenger Don Davis. "You're not just going to jump up and attack the captain."
But four men did tackle the pilot, using seat belt extenders and zip-tie handcuffs to restrain and pin him to the floor for more than 20 minutes while the co-pilot and an off-duty pilot who was aboard landed the plane in Amarillo, Texas.
JetBlue CEO and President Dave Barger told NBC's Matt Lauer, who named the captain as Clayton Osborn, that the captain is a "consummate professional" whom he has personally known for years.
There is nothing in the pilot's record to indicate he would be a risk on a flight, Barger said in a Wednesday interview on the "Today" show.
"Clearly, he had an emotional or mental type of breakdown," said passenger Tony Antolino, who sat in the 10th row and tackled the pilot when he tried to re-enter the cockpit.
"He became almost delusional," Antolino said after arriving in Las Vegas some six hours behind schedule.
Passenger Josh Redick said the pilot seemed "irate" and was "spouting off about Afghanistan and souls and al-Qaida."
The airline described the incident as a "medical situation" involving the captain of JetBlue Airways Flight 191 from New York's John F Kennedy International Airport. Officials said he was taken to a hospital.
The outburst came weeks after an American Airlines flight attendant was taken off a plane for rambling about 9/11 and her fears the plane would crash. One aviation expert could recall only two or three cases in 40 years where a pilot had become mentally incapacitated during a flight.
Gabriel Schonzeit, who was sitting in the third row, said the captain said there could be a bomb on board the flight.
"He started screaming about al-Qaida and possibly a bomb on the plane and Iraq and Iran and about how we were all going down," Schonzeit told the Amarillo Globe-News.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the co-pilot had locked the cockpit.
An off-duty airline captain who was a passenger entered the flight deck and took over the duties of the ill captain before landing in Amarillo, the airline said in a statement.
The FBI was coordinating an investigation with airport police, Amarillo police, the FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration, an agency spokeswoman said in Dallas.
John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and former airline pilot, said incidents in which pilots become mentally incapacitated during a flight are "pretty rare." He said he could only recall two or three other examples in the more than 40 years he has been following commercial aviation.
Unruly pilots and crew have disrupted flights in the past.
In 2008, an Air Canada co-pilot was forcibly removed from a Toronto-to-London flight, restrained and sedated after having a mental breakdown.
The JetBlue captain's co-workers tried to calm him as he became more jittery, coaxing him to the back of the plane while making sure that he didn't get near the plane's controls.
Then he sprinted up the cabin's aisle ranting about a bomb, screaming "They're going to take us down!" and urging passengers to pray.
"Nobody knew what to do because he is the captain of the plane," said passenger Don Davis. "You're not just going to jump up and attack the captain."
But four men did tackle the pilot, using seat belt extenders and zip-tie handcuffs to restrain and pin him to the floor for more than 20 minutes while the co-pilot and an off-duty pilot who was aboard landed the plane in Amarillo, Texas.
JetBlue CEO and President Dave Barger told NBC's Matt Lauer, who named the captain as Clayton Osborn, that the captain is a "consummate professional" whom he has personally known for years.
There is nothing in the pilot's record to indicate he would be a risk on a flight, Barger said in a Wednesday interview on the "Today" show.
"Clearly, he had an emotional or mental type of breakdown," said passenger Tony Antolino, who sat in the 10th row and tackled the pilot when he tried to re-enter the cockpit.
"He became almost delusional," Antolino said after arriving in Las Vegas some six hours behind schedule.
Passenger Josh Redick said the pilot seemed "irate" and was "spouting off about Afghanistan and souls and al-Qaida."
The airline described the incident as a "medical situation" involving the captain of JetBlue Airways Flight 191 from New York's John F Kennedy International Airport. Officials said he was taken to a hospital.
The outburst came weeks after an American Airlines flight attendant was taken off a plane for rambling about 9/11 and her fears the plane would crash. One aviation expert could recall only two or three cases in 40 years where a pilot had become mentally incapacitated during a flight.
Gabriel Schonzeit, who was sitting in the third row, said the captain said there could be a bomb on board the flight.
"He started screaming about al-Qaida and possibly a bomb on the plane and Iraq and Iran and about how we were all going down," Schonzeit told the Amarillo Globe-News.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the co-pilot had locked the cockpit.
An off-duty airline captain who was a passenger entered the flight deck and took over the duties of the ill captain before landing in Amarillo, the airline said in a statement.
The FBI was coordinating an investigation with airport police, Amarillo police, the FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration, an agency spokeswoman said in Dallas.
John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and former airline pilot, said incidents in which pilots become mentally incapacitated during a flight are "pretty rare." He said he could only recall two or three other examples in the more than 40 years he has been following commercial aviation.
Unruly pilots and crew have disrupted flights in the past.
In 2008, an Air Canada co-pilot was forcibly removed from a Toronto-to-London flight, restrained and sedated after having a mental breakdown.
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