Words generate heat

(CNN) -- A JetBlue flight bound for Las Vegas made an emergency landing in Texas on Tuesday after the captain acted strangely, was locked out of the cockpit by his co-pilot and was wrestled to the ground by passengers, witnesses and authorities said.

The plane's co-pilot, concerned by the "erratic" behavior, locked the door behind the captain when he left the cockpit during the flight, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Passengers described to CNN what happened next.

"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,'" said Laurie Dhue.

Passengers Paul Babakitis, left, and Tony Antolino helped subdue the distraught pilot.

"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," she said.

Amateur video of the incident showed a commotion as several men were moving in the aisle. A voice, purportedly that of the pilot, can be heard.

"Oh my God. I'm so distraught!" he shouts. The voice mentions Israel and Iraq.

In another video, passengers appeared to be standing over something, or someone, presumably the subdued pilot.

Paul Babakitis, another passenger and a retired New York police officer, said he was one of the men who helped wrestle the captain to the ground.

"I felt if he got in the cockpit, he was going to try to take that plane down, and not for a safe landing," he said.

Law enforcement met the aircraft, cuffed the pilot and took him off the plane, Babakitis said. Video showed someone being carried off the plane in a sort of chair.

Passenger describes chaos on flight

"I'm not foreign to situations like this, but I don't expect them at 30,000 feet," he said.

Babakitis and some other passengers reported hearing the captain say the word "bomb" at one point. However, passenger Jason Levin said he did not hear him say that.

Levin was sitting in the front row of the plane, full of people on their way to a security conference, when the pilot came out of the cockpit.

"It just seemed like something triggered him to go off the wall. He would be calm one minute and then just all of sudden turn," he said. "If it was going to happen, it happened at the right time and the right place."

Passenger Tony Antolino hailed the co-pilot as a 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," he told CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight."

Jet Blue Flight 191 left New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at 7:28 a.m.

"At roughly 10 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET, the pilot in command elected to divert to Amarillo, Texas, for a medical situation involving the captain. Another captain, traveling off duty, entered the flight deck prior to landing at Amarillo and took over the duties of the ill crew member once on the ground," JetBlue said.

The crew member was taken off the plane and transported to a medical facility, it added.

FBI Special Agent Lydia Maese said the FBI responded to the incident and is coordinating with Amarillo and airport police, the FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration. She declined further comment, saying an investigation is pending.

Everything considered, passenger Antolino said he felt thankful. "This could have had a horrific outcome."

 URL: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/27/travel/jet-blue-flight-diverted/index.html

 

1.      What is the link to Crisis Management?

The link here to Crisis Management is how the company JetBlue will deal with the consequences of a "deadhead" pilot almost having a panic attack while in flight. It is a crisis management situation because it makes the public question the pilots we rely on to fly planes that we take.

2.      What stage of Crisis Management does the system appear to be at?

This seems to be at a major issue stage in the crisis scale. I would not deem this scenario even a risk because it was one isolated incident that was dealt with quite easily. It seems that the passengers heard the words Afghanistan/Iraq and Israel and panicked creating more havoc on the plane.

3.      How well does the system appear to be handling the situation?

So far the nothing has been said by JetBlue regarding this situation. It seems like the system has not handled it so far.

4.      What level of crisis preparedness does the system appear to have?

 I believe pilots go through a stringent mental aptitude test but it seems like they need to be even more stringent since pilots can have manic episodes on passenger flights, which is quite scary to know. When the situation broke out on the plane it just so happened that an NYPD officer was on board to assist in subdue-ing the manic pilot. 

5.      What personal reactions/feelings does the description trigger in you?

This article triggers fear in me for people flying with pilots who seem to have mental exhaustion to the point where a manic episode can occur as a result. But this situation also emits fear on another front, that is: the fact that stating countries names like Afghanistan/Iraq and Israel can generate that level of fear in passengers when the pilot experiencing the manic episode may not have even said those words at all. It’s just sad to see that mentioning those countries creates that much fear; I would feel very bad if one day people mention Canada and surrounding people panicked.

6.      What advice would you offer to those involved?

I think JetBlue and other airlines have to elaborate to the public what training the pilots go through and what sorts of mental testing they go through to ensure they are safe to fly planes. It is important that the company releases information to the employees and public on what exactly the pilot was going through and why his behaviour was the way it was.