Most Popular Content - www.foxnews.com: Pilot, passenger mid-air freakouts put JetBlue and US Airways on alert

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Pilot, passenger mid-air freakouts put JetBlue and US Airways on alert Mar 28th 2012, 12:54 A disgruntled passenger aboard a US Airways flight from North Carolina to Florida was reportedly arrested Tuesday night after witnesses say she attacked crew members before being wrestled to the floor. The latest incident comes on the heels of a JetBlue captain who had to be subdued by passengers after he apparently acted erratically during an early-morning flight Tuesday from New York's Kennedy Airport to Las Vegas. US Airways spokesman Bill McGlashen said Wednesday he didn't know why the passenger became unruly, how she was restrained or whether any flight attendants on the Charlotte, North Carolina, to Fort Myers, Florida, flight were injured. The female passenger aboard US Airways flight 1697 kicked, scratched and spit on crew members, according to Raleigh station WCNC, which said one of its reporters spoke to arriving crew members in the terminal. The woman complained of being scared of flying shortly before she became violent, flight attendants said. One female flight attendant had bruises and bandages on her arms in addition to scratch marks. Meanwhile, more information is beginning to emerge about the circumstances aboard JetBlue Flight 191, which was forced to make an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas, during its flight to Las Vegas. The JetBlue captain's co-workers tried to calm him as he became more jittery, coaxing him to the back of the plane while making sure that he didn't return to the plane's controls. Sources identified the captain to Fox News as Clayton Osbon, a JetBlue flight standards captain from Richmond Hill, Ga. He was taken into custody when the flight landed, but it wasn't immediately clear whether he faces any charges. Osbon had ranted about Al Qaeda and a possible bomb onboard before being subdued, passengers said. Laurie Dhue, a former Fox News anchor who was on board the flight, said she also heard the captain mention "Afghanistan" and "Israel" during his rant. Then, he sprinted up the cabin's aisle -- ranting about a bomb, screaming "They're going to take us down!" and urging confused passengers to pray. "Nobody knew what to do because he is the captain of the plane," said Don Davis, the owner of a Ronkonkoma, New York-based wireless broadband manufacturer who was traveling to Sin City for a security industry conference. Gabriel Schonzeit, who was sitting in the third row, said the captain said there could be a bomb on board the flight. "He started screaming about Al Qaeda and possibly a bomb on the plane and Iraq and Iran and about how we were all going down," Schonzeit told the Amarillo Globe-News. "A group of us just jumped up instinctually and grabbed him and put him to the ground," Antolino said. Dave Barger, JetBlue's CEO and president, says the captain who ranted about a bomb on a flight to Las Vegas is a "consummate professional" whom he has personally known for years. He said there is nothing in the captain's record to indicate he could be a risk. Airline pilots must have a first-class medical certificate and it must be renewed every year if the pilot is under 40 and every six months if he's over the age, an FAA spokesman told FoxNews.com. The examination takes psychological conditions as part of the assessment and all existing physical and psychological conditions must be disclosed, the spokesman said. JetBlue declined to answer questions from FoxNews.com about Osbon's medical history or if he will be able to fly for the carrier again. Josh Redick, who was sitting near the middle of the plane, said the captain seemed "irate" and was "spouting off about Afghanistan and souls and Al Qaeda." Airline officials said the pilot was taken to a hospital. The FBI was coordinating an investigation with the airport police, Amarillo police, the FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration, said agency spokeswoman Lydia Maese in Dallas. She declined to comment on arrests. The flight left New York around 7 a.m. and was in the air for 3 1/2 hours before landing in Texas. The passengers boarded another plane for Las Vegas several hours later. That plane arrived in Las Vegas about two hours later. John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and former airline pilot, said incidents in which pilots become mentally incapacitated during a flight are "pretty rare." He said he could only recall two or three other examples in the more than 40 years he has been following commercial aviation. Fox New's Joshua Rhett Miller, Edmund DeMarche and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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