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Captain restrained on JetBlue flight for ‘erratic’ behavior

Captain restrained on JetBlue flight for ‘erratic’ behavior

A JetBlue flight, on its way to Las Vegas from John F. Kennedy International airport in New York, was forced to make an emergency landing in Texas on Tuesday after the captain acted oddly, was locked out of the cockpit by his co-pilot, and was wrestled to the ground by passengers, authorities and witnesses reported. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane’s co-pilot, disturbed by the pilot’s “erratic” behavior, convinced him to get out of the cockpit during the flight, and locked the door behind him. “The pilot ran to the cockpit door, began banging on it and said something to the effect of, ‘We’ve gotta pull the throttle back. We’ve gotta get this plane down,’” passenger Laurie Dhue told CNN. “At that point, the two flight attendants tried to subdue him, and then seemingly out of nowhere, about six or seven large guys stormed to the front of the plane and wrestled the captain of the plane down to the ground and had him subdued in a matter of moments. It was really like something out of a movie,” Dhue said.

The pilot could be heard saying, “Oh my God. I’m so distraught!” and shouting about Israel and Iraq. One of the men who helped restrain the captain was Paul Babakitis, a retired New York police officer. He said, “I felt if he got in the cockpit, he was going to try to take that plane down, and not for a safe landing.” Passenger Tony Antolino praised the co-pilot as the hero. “The co-pilot of the flight, he really — I think — is the hero here because he had the sense to recognize that something was going horribly wrong, and he was able to persuade the pilot out of the cockpit,” Antolino told CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight.” Fortunately, the plane was full of people on their way to a security conference. Authorities met the aircraft in Texas, cuffed the pilot, took him off the plane, and transported him to a medical facility.




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