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JetBlue pilot is charged by federal prosecutors, suspended from job

March 28, 2012

View Photo Gallery - : JetBlue pilot meltdown is latest instance of bad publicity for airlines: JetBlue…

A JetBlue aircraft was forced on Tuesday to make an early landing when its pilot apparently had some sort of meltdown. Now that pilot, Clayton Osbon, is facing charges. The Associated Press reports:

Federal authorities have charged a JetBlue Airways captain who sprinted down the cabin of a flight screaming about a bomb with interfering with a flight crew.

An affidavit unsealed Wednesday states that captain Clayton Osbon told his co-pilots that “things don’t matter” during a Las Vegas-bound flight Tuesday. Court documents say Osbon told the plane’s first officer that “we’re not going to Vegas” and began giving a sermon.

Passengers wrestled Osbon to the ground after he left the cockpit and sprinted down the cabin screaming and urging everyone to pray. The plane made an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas. No one on board was hurt.

The 49-year-old veteran pilot was being held Wednesday at a medical facility in Texas.

Osbon was also suspended from his job, Bloomberg News reports:

“I’ve known the captain personally for a long period of time and there’s been no indication of this in the past,” Chief Executive Officer Dave Barger said on NBC’s “Today” show, describing the pilot as a “consummate professional.” New York-based JetBlue isn’t aware of any similar incidents in the pilot’s history, he said.

The airline declined to release further personal details on Osbon or on the co-pilot who diverted the plane to Amarillo, assisted by an off-duty JetBlue pilot who was on board.

A call today to the FBI office in Dallas investigating the case wasn’t immediately returned. A phone number listed for Osbon in Savannah, Georgia, would not accept messages.

How has JetBlue handled the spate of negative publicity that has arisen from this incident? Jena McGregor reports:

The airline’s response has gotten mixed reviews from fans and customers alike, with some cheering the passengers’ and crew’s swift actions while others questioned how much the airline was telling them. To some, JetBlue’s initial statements about a “medical situation” didn’t seem to fit the stories trickling out about a pilot running up and down the aisles screaming that passengers should say their prayers.

“Best not to sanitize what sounds like a very serious situation,” one commenter wrote on JetBlue’s blog after the airline called the event a medical situation in a statement. “An on-duty pilot having a psychotic episode in-flight and having to be restrained by passengers per the request of the other pilot is a different category.”

Such a crisis is extremely difficult for any leader to manage in real-time, especially when the event involves what appears to be a mental condition that a company cannot, for obvious reasons, elaborate on publicly. JetBlue’s response was hardly pitch-perfect — the CEO, Barger, seemed to try too hard to redirect his interview with Matt Lauer to the heroism of the passengers and the crew, while the very first thing he said probably should have been his sympathies for the passengers who went through the wrenching experience. And their biggest test is yet to come, as investigations begin taking place and as JetBlue’s leadership takes part in what is sure to be both an internal and external debate over mental health testing for pilots. (Barger called the pilot “a consummate professional” and told Lauer he is not aware of any issues with his record.)

Still, many companies — particularly airlines — would have hesitated to engage so quickly with what their customers were saying about them. That hasn’t stopped the critics, of course, who range from random fliers (“I wouldn’t call what happened today an ‘adventure,’” tweeted@andrewlparker. “I’m from Australia and flying with you in June. #veryconcerned”) to Piers Morgan, who tweeted Tuesday night: “Unbelievable. No #JetBlue executive has called the passenger heroes who saved their plane today to say thanks??? Get on the phone NOW.”