Passengers subdue screaming JetBlue captain


March 28, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS

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.

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.

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.