Staff and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 March 2012 11.41 EDT
JetBlue passengers claim pilot Clayton Osbon walked out of the cockpit and attempted to force his way into an occupied bathroom. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty
Passengers aboard a flight from New York to Las Vegas have described the moment when a pilot suffered an apparent breakdown which led to him being pinned to the floor while another pilot made an emergency landing.
Holidaymakers on the JetBlue flight on Tuesday realised something was wrong when the pilot, Clayton Osbon, 49, walked out of the cockpit and attempted to force his way into an occupied bathroom.
Osbon's colleagues tried to calm him down as he became more jittery, coaxing the pilot to the back of the plane while ensuring he did not get near the plane's controls. But he broke free and sprinted up the aisle, claiming there was a bomb. Passengers said Olson urged them to pray and shouted, "They're going to take us down."
"Nobody knew what to do because he is the captain of the plane," said Don Davis, who was aboard the plane at the time. "You're not just going to jump up and attack the captain."
Four men managed to restrain Osbon, using seatbelt extenders and zip-tie handcuffs to pin him to the floor for more than 20 minutes while the co-captain and an off-duty pilot landed the plane in Amarillo, Texas.
Tony Antolino, who sat in the 10th row and tackled Osbon when he attempted to re-enter the cockpit, said: "Clearly the pilot had an emotional or mental type of breakdown. He became almost delusional."
Fellow passenger Josh Redick said Osbon seemed "irate" and was "spouting off about Afghanistan and souls and al-Qaida".
The chief executive of JetBlue, Dave Barger, told NBC Osbon was a "consummate professional" he had known for years. There was nothing in the pilot's record to indicate he would be a risk, Barger added.
The airline described the incident as a "medical situation involving the captain of JetBlue airways flight 191 from New York's John F Kennedy airport". The pilot was later taken to a hospital, it added.
Gabriel Schonzeit, who was sitting in the third row, said the pilot had 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," he told Amarillo Globe-News. "A group of us … grabbed him and put him to the ground."
An off-duty airline captain who was on the plane entered the flight deck and took over the duties of the ill captain before landing in Amarillo, the airline said.
Airline authorities and police officers interviewed passengers on arrival. Grant Heppes, who was on the flight, said: "I had no idea [Olson] was an employee … I just assumed he was a passenger who flipped out."
An FBI spokeswoman, Lydia Maese, said it was co-ordinating an investigation with airport police, Amarillo police, the FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration. She declined to comment on any arrests.
John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and former airline pilot, said such incidents were rare. He recalled two or three similar examples in some 40 years.
Airlines and the FAA encouraged pilots to assert themselves if they thought flight safety was at risk, even if it meant contradicting the captain's orders, Cox said.
All pilots working for scheduled airlines must have a first-class medical certificate, which must be renewed by the FAA every six months to a year, depending on the pilot's age. To receive the certificate, pilots must be examined by an FAA-designated doctor, who asks questions about the interviewee's psychological condition. Pilots are required to disclose any ailments and list any medication they may be taking.
The incident aboard the JetBlue flight comes weeks after an American Airlines flight attendant was removed from a plane after making references to 9/11 and voicing concerns that the plane would crash.
In 2008, an Air Canada co-pilot was removed from flight from Toronto to London then later restrained and sedated after having a mental breakdown.
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