Pilot increasingly erratic on plane
Pilot increasingly erratic on plane
RICHMOND HILL, Ga. (AP) — JetBlue Airways captain Clayton Osbon showed up unusually late to fly Flight 191 to Las Vegas. The plane was in midair when he eerily told his co-pilot they wouldn’t make it there.
Osbon started rambling about religion. He scolded air traffic controllers to quiet down, then turned off the radios altogether, and dimmed the monitors in the cockpit. He said aloud that “things just don’t matter” and encouraged his co-pilot that they take a leap of faith. “We’re not going to Vegas,” Osbon said.
What unfolded next, according to court documents released Wednesday, was a dramatic chase and struggle in the cabin that ended with passengers tackling Osbon, 49, and holding him down until the co-pilot could make an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas. He was charged Wednesday with interfering with a flight crew.
A pilot with JetBlue since 2000, Osbon’s odd behavior on Tuesday became increasingly erratic after the flight departed New York, worrying his fellow crew members so much that they locked him out after he abruptly left the cockpit, according to an affidavit.
Osbon then started yelling about Jesus, al-Qaida and a possible bomb on board, forcing passengers to tie him up with seat belt extenders and zip tie handcuffs for about 20 minutes until the plane landed.
High court rules
on record sharing
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the federal government cannot be sued for emotional distress after two agencies improperly shared a man’s medical records detailing his HIV status.
“We hold that the Privacy Act does not unequivocally authorize an award of damages for mental or emotional distress,” said Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the 5-3 opinion throwing out Stanmore Cooper’s lawsuit. “Accordingly, the act does not waive the federal government’s sovereign immunity from liability for such harms.”
The San Francisco man, who is HIV-positive, disclosed that information to Social Security officials to receive medical benefits, but withheld it from the Federal Aviation Administration. During a criminal investigation involving pilots’ medical fitness to fly, the Social Security Administration gave the FAA the medical records of some 45,000 Northern California residents who applied for licenses.
The FAA was investigating whether pilots were using one set of doctors to certify their fitness to fly while applying to Social Security for disability payments using other doctors to support claims of illness and injury.
Apollo 11 engines might be raised
LOS ANGELES (AP) — For more than four decades, the powerful engines that helped boost the Apollo 11 mission to the moon have rested in the Atlantic.
Now Internet billionaire and space enthusiast Jeff Bezos wants to raise at least one of them to the surface. An undersea expedition spearheaded by Bezos used sonar to find what he said were the F-1 engines located 14,000 feet deep. In an online announcement Wednesday, the Amazon.com CEO and founder said he is drawing up plans to recover the sunken engines, part of the mighty Saturn V rocket that launched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their moon mission.
The five engines, which produced nearly 7.7 million pounds of thrust, dropped into the sea as planned minutes after liftoff in 1969. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon.
Lawmaker wears hoodie in House
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Bobby Rush donned a hoodie during a speech on the House floor Wednesday deploring the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, receiving a reprimand for violating rules on wearing hats in the House chamber.
The Illinois Democrat spoke out against racial profiling and, as he removed his suit coat and pulled the hood on the sweatshirt he was wearing underneath over his head, saying “just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum.”
Rush was interrupted by the presiding officer, Mississippi Republican Gregg Harper, who reminded him that the wearing of hats was not allowed and “members need to remove their hoods or leave the floor.”