Jetblue pilot charged, could face prison, $250,000 fine
Jetblue captain could face 20 years in prison and fine of $250,000
Captain who ran through cabin, screamed at passengers charged with crew interference. Family, friends of pilot baffled by incident.
Federal authorities charged a Jetblue pilot Wednesday with interfering with his flight crew by sprinting through the cabin and screaming at passengers that they should “pray (expletive) now for Jesus Christ.”
An FBI affidavit filed with the criminal complaint says Clayton Osbon, 49, told his co-pilot that “things just don’t matter” and “we need to take a leap of faith” before sprinting through the cabin and being wrestled to the floor by passengers on the Tuesday flight from New York to Las Vegas.
Passengers quoted in the FBI affidavit said Osbon told passengers to pray and yelled, “Guys, push it to full throttle!”
After an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas, Osbon was removed from the aircraft and taken to a facility in the Northwest Texas Healthcare System in Amarillo for medical evaluation, where he remains.
Anyone who interferes with a flight crew faces a charge carrying a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Drake of Dallas, who will handle the prosecution, has 30 days to bring the case before a grand jury for indictment.
Despite the incident, Jetblue CEO Dave Barger called Osbon, a 12-year veteran of the airline, “a consummate professional.” Barger told NBC’S Today show Wednesday that Osbon’s situation began as a “medical situation” and became a “security situation.”
“I’ve known the captain personally for a long period of time,” Barger said of Osbon. “There’s been no indication of this at all in the past.”
Osbon’s Linkedin page describes him as a captain who also works in pilot recruitment and leadership development. He earned degrees from Hawthorne College in aeronautical physics and Carnegie Mellon University in physics. He lives in Richmond Hill, Ga., near Savannah.
Osbon’s wife, Connye Osbon, said she had “no idea what’s going on,” and she told Abcnews.com to withhold judgment because “there are several different sides to every story.”
Christine Lucas, a freelance journalist and newspaper columnist based in Savannah, was shocked when she learned that the Jetblue meltdown involved the affable pilot who reminded her of a G.I. Joe doll. She interviewed him last year for a series on local pilots in a local magazine Richmond Hill Reflections.
“He is an extremely friendly individual and extremely easy to talk to and puts others at ease,” said Lucas, 36.
Osbon made no mention of health problems, medications or stress during their talk, Lucas said. In fact, she said, he seemed like a well-rounded person who was enjoying the fruits of his hard work in his career.
“He’s got a lot of charisma, and I would venture just to say he wouldn’t have intentionally put people in danger or even tried to rile people up in that way, at least not from what I’ve seen,” Lucas said.
The incident was a rare and frighten- ing one for passengers aboard Flight 191, which began about 7:30 a.m. ET and landed in Amarillo at 10:17 a.m. CT.
According to the affidavit, Osbon arrived late for the flight and missed the crew briefing, a time when security experts say crewmembers evaluate one another for problems such as intoxication or other stresses. As the plane climbed in altitude, Osbon told his co-pilot he was being evaluated by someone and then began talking about religion in an incoherent way, the affidavit from FBI agent John Whitworth says.
The co-pilot became concerned when Osbon said, “We’re not going to Vegas,” and “We need to take a leap of faith,” according to the affidavit.
Osbon abruptly left the cockpit and pounded on the door of an occupied lavatory, alarming the rest of the flight crew when he didn’t follow the company’s protocol for leaving the cockpit.
“When the flight attendants met with him at the front galley to find out if anything was wrong, Osbon aggressively grabbed a flight attendant’s hands,” the affidavit says.
After walking to the rear of the aircraft, Osbon sprinted back to the forward galley and tried to enter his code to get back into the cockpit. His unidentified co-pilot had locked the cockpit door and asked over the intercom for passengers to restrain Osbon as he yelled about Jesus, 9/11, Iraq, Iran and terrorists.
An FBI official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said it is thought that the pilot’s behavior was related to a medical issue, not terrorism. The plane was checked for bombs in Amarillo, and nothing was found.
“The flight attendants elected to have the aircraft land without having the assisting passengers return to their seats because the flight attendants felt they could not risk letting Osbon get up off the floor,” the affidavit says.