Plane makes emergency landing in Texas after ranting pilot restrained

So otherwise the flight was O.K. ?

I am not sure who has done their job better; al-Quaida, the government, or the MSM. But at the very least, they have all worked well together to create an unnecessary state of panic.

Wasn't it the air stewardess a few weeks back?

Elaine Dickinson: A hospital? What is it?

Rumack: It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.

Wow how did he get a license?

Hate to think this, but Jet Blue is a low cost carrier, right? Low cost carriers need to sustain their low fares by cutting costs in other areas, right? Is it possible that one of the things cut was the employee screening process? Is it possible that the airline is trying to keep it's costs low by hiring less experienced or less qualified personnel?

I believe he was an older person - probably on medication or early signs of dementia. Or "You're all on Candid Camera"!!!!!

WakarimasenMAR. 28, 2012 - 10:33AM JST I believe he was an older person - probably on medication or early signs of dementia.

Or perhaps they cut costs by hiring people who once worked for one of the major carriers but now for some reason do not.

With pilots required to have a physical every 6 months over the age of 40, there's no way in hell a pilot with early dementia or mood-altering drugs is going to stay qualified.

rmistric: employee screening process

It's not like you can just put everyone in the world through a line and predict who will have an incident like this and who won't. And if there were such a test, I doubt JetBlue would be the keepers of it..heh. I think since it happened on the job people tend to look at the company, but if a pilot had a breakdown while watching a baseball game I doubt people would be asking why his company didn't catch it.

Doesn't get much scarier for passengers than a pilot who suddenly loses the plot. The only scarier thing would be an actual suicide bomber on board. I read on BBC that a co-pilot on Air Canada had a similar mental breakdown during flight back in 2008. Time to implement stricter mental health screening and offer more counselling for pilots I would say.

But at the very least, they have all worked well together to create an unnecessary state of panic.

None of that have anything to do with a pilot that seems to be mentally ill. Even if all those "panic" sources did not exist, this would have been a panic situation. A ranting pilot in a plane in the air is definitely an appropriate panic situation, editorialization or not.

Forgot to take his meds most likely.

I could see a lot of freaked-out passengers on that flight. One would think there are certain medical/behavioral checks on pilots, but he most likely was suffering from stress and like cactusJack said, maybe forgot his meds.

SuperLibMAR. 28, 2012 - 12:06PM JST It's not like you can just put everyone in the world through a line and predict who will have an incident like this and who won't. And if there were such a test, I doubt JetBlue would be the keepers of it..heh.

You're right. This pilot could've just as easily working for a major carrier. I am just wondering out loud if all of efforts airlines are making to keep fare prices low are not costing them (and eventually us) more in other ways.

SuperLibMAR. 28, 2012 - 12:06PM JST I think since it happened on the job people tend to look at the company, but if a pilot had a breakdown while watching a baseball game I doubt people would be asking why his company didn't catch it.

Right again. If this particular pilot lost it while taking in a ball game then most likely nobody would be talking about his company or perhaps even the fact that he is a pilot. However, since he lost it while he was at the controls of a commercial aircraft loaded with passengers and actually had to be restrained by some of those passengers, it is not completely out of the ordinary to ask his company how this might have happened, is it?

@Pukey2

yes, it's time to check the coffee i think

Jesus I've got to fly on Sunday, this kinda thing really takes away the desire to climb into a anluminium tube and fly at 30,000 feet wth other mamber of my race that may or may not be stark raving frikin loonies.

This concludes our in-flight entertainment, please return your tray tables and seats back to their upright positions.

OH MY DOG!! This pilot?? This dude was in command of a jet blue flight?? What in the heck were they thinking?? Thank dog/oops, you all know what I mean, that this nut case was taken out of the cockpit or we could be reading very, very different headlines, like, CAPTAIN of JetBlue goes nuts, kills everybody in the cockpit and smashes his plane into the middle of the Las Vegas strip??

Forgot to take his meds most likely.

No.... the FAA takes a dim view of anyone who has to take medication to prevent psychosis. If this is what happens when he misses his meds, he's not getting a medical certificate of any type. I have to believe something else was going on here.

With pilots required to have a physical every 6 months over the age of 40...

When you get an Air Transport Pilot certificate (what airline pilots have to have), you have to get a Class 1 medical certificate, which means a physical every 6 months (in order to fly an airliner), no matter what your age.

but passengers on the flight—many of whom happened to be security professionals heading to a conference in Las Vegas—managed to pin him down.

I actually laughed when I read this. Perfect!

They get blood tests during their physicals. So a Airline Captain loses control of himself? He is a person just like any other. If you consider the number of pilots it is amazing it does not happen more often. There was the case of the JAL pilot crashing his DC8 on approach to Haneda. Again as people we have problems and none of us are immune. Hope he makes a full recovery. We need to treat people with mental issues like any other physical problem.

The first hero was the co-pilot who locked out the crazy pilot from the cockpit.