The jetBlue pilot who flipped out at 35,000 feet was suffering from some kind of religious mania, according to an FBI affidavit released Wednesday. About three hours into the flight, Capt. Clayton Osbon started ranting about the “sins in Las Vegas” and delivered what the first officer called a “sermon.”
Most terrifyingly, he began turning off instruments and declared the crew needed to take “a leap of faith,” the FBI said.
Osbon also talked incoherently of the 150 “souls” on board Flight 191.
The affidavit, based on interviews with the first officer who saved the plane, an off-duty pilot who helped land it, and two flight attendants, says Osbon arrived late for the Tuesday morning flight out of JFK Airport.
“Initially, he did not exhibit any bizarre behavior,” the document states.
“As they were climbing out of JFK, Osbon said something to (the first officer) about being evaluated by someone; (the first officer) was not sure what Osbon meant.”
Osbon also mentioned his church and needing to focus.
Then he said “things just don’t matter,” grabbed the radio and “yelled over the radio to air traffic control and instructed them to be quiet.”
Then the FBI says he turned off the cockpit radios and dimmed his monitors.
The affidavit says the first officer “became really worried when Osbon said ‘we need to take a leap of faith.’”
“Osbon started trying to correlate completely unrelated numbers like radio frequencies,” the FBI said.
A sudden fixation on numbers and patterns is a common sympton of schizophrenia.
At this point, about three and a half hours into the flight, Osbon abruptly left the cockpit and ran out into the cabin.
“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 said.
“He banged on the lavatory door and told a female passenger who was inside that he needed to go to the bathroom.”
When he came out of the bathroom, he was talking a lot “but was not making sense,” the FBI says.
He started sprinting up the aisle, chased by flight attendants, and raving at passengers “pray f---ing now for Jesus Christ.”
The FBI says he ranted about Jesus, 9/11, Iraq, Iran and terrorists. He also yelled, “Guys, push it to full throttle.”
The flight happened to be full of men heading to a weeklong security conference in Las Vegas. Several restrained Osbon until the plane made an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas.
Osbon, who was hospitalized, was formally charged Wednesday with interfering with a flight crew.
Poster Comment:
Can't help but ponder that this was a 'false-flag' op that went awry. Would love to read the passengers list on this plane.
This plane was suppose to crash, imho.
