Airline captain who 'freaked out' could face 20 years in jail

Updated
Airline captain who 'freaked out' could face 20 years in jail
Airline captain who 'freaked out' could face 20 years in jail

PA


A US airline captain who sprinted through the cabin of a Las Vegas-bound flight screaming about terrorists, Jesus and September 11 has been charged with interfering with a flight crew, reports the Press Association.

Under federal law, a conviction for interference with a flight crew or attendants can bring up to 20 years in prison. The offence is defined as assaulting or intimidating the crew, interfering with its duties or diminishing its ability to operate the plane.

Captain Clayton Osbon started behaving strangely shortly after JetBlue Airways flight 191 from New York departed on Tuesday.

Passengers reported that he screamed: "Say your prayers, say your prayers", and ran up and down the aisle shouting, "Iraq, al-Qaeda, terrorism, we're all going down!"

He told his co-pilot that "things just don't matter," according to an affidavit.

Osbon, who was ultimately tackled by passengers while the plane made an emergency landing in Texas, told his co-pilot that "we're not going to Vegas" and began what was described as a sermon, the court documents said.

"The (first officer) became really worried when Osbon said, 'We need to take a leap of faith'," according to the sworn affidavit given by an FBI agent. "Osbon started trying to correlate completely unrelated numbers like different radio frequencies, and he talked about sins in Las Vegas."

Osbon left the cockpit soon after and tensions on the plane began to escalate, according to witness accounts compiled by investigators.

The pilot, described by neighbours in Georgia as tall and muscular, "aggressively" grabbed the hands of a flight attendant who confronted him and later sprinted down the cabin while being chased.

From inside the locked cockpit, which Osbon tried to re-enter by banging on the door, the first officer gave an order through the intercom to restrain Osbon, according to the affidavit. Passengers wrestled Osbon to the ground, and one female flight attendant's ribs were bruised during the struggle. No one on board was seriously hurt.

The charges against Osbon, 49, were filed in Texas. He was being held at Northwest Texas Healthcare System in Amarillo and remains under medical evaluation.

JetBlue spokeswoman Allison Steinberg said Osbon had been suspended pending a review of the flight.

He has been a pilot for JetBlue since 2000. The company's chief executive and president Dave Barger told NBC's Today show that Osbon was a "consummate professional" whom he has "personally known" for years.

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