JetBlue pilot flips out! | FerrariChat

JetBlue pilot flips out!

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by Gatorrari, Mar 27, 2012.

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  1. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    Feb 27, 2004
    16,459
    Georgia
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    Jim Pernikoff
    When I first saw this story earlier today, it sounded like a normal medical emergency: the pilot had a medical issue, so a NYC-Las Vegas flight landed in Amarillo.

    But now look what became of the story:

    "LAS VEGAS (AP) — Passengers onboard a JetBlue flight bound for Las Vegas on Tuesday tackled and restrained the plane's captain after he was locked out of the cockpit by crew members, screamed 'they're going to take us down' and ranted about al-Qaida and a possible bomb onboard, passengers said.

    The captain of JetBlue Airways Flight 191 from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport had a 'medical situation' and the co-pilot diverted the plane to land in Amarillo, Texas, around 10 a.m., the airline said.

    Passengers said the captain stormed out of the cockpit and started acting erratically and seemed disoriented. Tony Antolino, a 40-year-old executive for a security firm, said the captain walked to the back of the plane after crew members tried to calm him down. He then began yelling about an unspecified threat linked to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

    'They're going to take us down. They're taking us down. They're going to take us down. Say the Lord's prayer. Say the Lord's prayer,' the captain screamed, according to Antolino.

    Josh Redick, a passenger sitting near the middle of the plane, said the captain seemed 'irate' and was 'spouting off about Afghanistan and souls and al-Qaida.'

    The captain then tried to re-enter the cockpit, but he was not allowed back in. The captain had been exhibiting 'erratic behavior,' so the co-pilot locked him out of the cockpit, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

    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.

    Antolino, who said he sat in the 10th row, said he and three others tackled the captain as he ran for the cockpit door, pinned him and held him down while the plane landed at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

    'That's how we landed,' he said. 'There were four of us on top of him. ... Everybody else kind of took a seat and that's how we landed.'

    An off-duty airline captain who just happened to be a passenger on the flight went to the flight deck and took over the duties of the ill captain 'once on the ground,' the airline said in a statement. It didn't elaborate.

    Shane Helton, 39, of Quinlan, Okla., said he saw emergency and security personnel coming on and off the plane as it sat on the tarmac at the Amarillo airport.

    'They pulled one guy out on a stretcher and put him in an ambulance,' said Helton, who went to the airport with his fiancee to see one of her sons off as he joined the Navy.

    Helton said the ambulance then sat on the tarmac next to the plane for more than 30 minutes.

    JetBlue said the ill captain was taken to a medical facility in Amarillo.

    Authorities interviewed each of the passengers once they had landed and left the plane, said 22-year-old passenger Grant Heppes, of New York City.

    The FBI was coordinating an investigation with the airport police, Amarillo police, the FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration, said agency spokeswoman Lydia Maese in Dallas. She declined to say if any arrests had been made.

    As a result of the incident, the FAA is likely to review the captain's medical certificate — essentially a seal of approval that the pilot is healthy. All pilots working for scheduled airlines must have a first-class medical certificate. The certificates are required to be renewed every year if the pilot is under 40, every six months if 40 or over.

    To obtain a certificate, the pilot must receive a physical examination by an FAA-designated medical examiner that includes questions about the pilot's psychological condition. The medical examiner can order additional psychological testing.

    Pilots are required to disclose all existing physical and psychological conditions and medications.

    In 2008, an Air Canada co-pilot had a mental breakdown on a flight from Toronto to London and was forcibly removed from the cockpit, restrained and sedated. A flight attendant with flying experience helped the pilot safely make an emergency landing in Ireland, and none of the 146 passengers and nine crew members on board were injured."
     
  2. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Jan 5, 2002
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    Don
    I wonder if he has an undiagnosed brain tumor or something? That would be my guess.
     
  3. docmirror

    docmirror Formula Junior

    May 6, 2004
    781
    Ft Worth TX
    Thank goodness TSA saved us from harm. :)
     
  4. Jedi

    Jedi Moderator
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    Mar 18, 2008
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    Dave
    If only his testicles had been groped before he boarded... :eek:
     
  5. TheMayor

    TheMayor Ten Time F1 World Champ
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    Feb 11, 2008
    106,064
    Vegas baby
    I don't think we should jump to any conclusions but I had a business partner with a Diabetes problem and when his blood sugar went too low, he became literally a raving lunatic.

    I don't know if that is the case here but I can see how a medical problem can cause a normal person to suddenly become irrational.
     
  6. alum04org

    alum04org F1 Rookie
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    Apr 23, 2009
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    Plymouth, MI



    There it is, the stark truth.
     
  7. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    Jun 30, 2007
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    drugs, psychotic break, or medical condition.

    any of those you would think would have been screened out for someone with a license to fly commercial airliners, but you never know.
     
  8. Jason Crandall

    Jason Crandall F1 Veteran

    Mar 25, 2004
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    Jason
    Not sure if you can have a pilots license with diabetes. That's why you need a medical certificate to fly airplanes. I get tested every 3 years because I'm young. But I think commercial pilots for airlines need to go yearly.
     
  9. cheesey

    cheesey Formula 3

    Jun 23, 2011
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    the downside in a flight physical is that there is no psychological evaluation... it only deals with the physical condition, there is a screening for prescription drugs only if provided to the medical examiner, which could ground a pilot... easy to avoid disclosure and done very often in the effort to prevent losing flying status
     
  10. sigar

    sigar F1 Rookie
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    Apr 30, 2005
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    NorCal
    How thorough are your flight medicals? Mine have generally been get you in, pay your fee, get you out. I've heard stories of AME's checking ones heartrate with the stethoscope on top of a pack of cigarettes in the patients chest pocket. Hopefully the airlines direct where there pilots get their exams.
     
  11. Zack

    Zack Formula 3

    Dec 18, 2003
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    Zacharias
    A few questions, weighing scale, simple vision test, and the basic heart rate/pulse/cough while I tickle your balls.

    The perfunctory flight medical is a joke. Even if it was thorough, you could hardly expect it predict the onset of something that doesn't exist at the time of the exam. What if the guy had been normal up to this point? That was clever of the other pilot to lock him out of the cockpit. He should also have told the flight crew to restrain the guy to prevent any alarm/panic in the cabin.

    Pretty funny that most of the people on the flight were going to a security conference, so they fancied themselves to be anti-terror experts.
     
  12. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Jan 5, 2002
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    Don
    The guy I go to now is very efficient. He checks all the boxes, no more and no less. The good news is he gets it all done in about 15 minutes.

    I highly doubt any airline tells their pilots where to get their exams.

     

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