Passengers Take Down The Pilot | World's Worst Flights | Channel 5

27th of March 2012 early morning security specialist Antony Antonino was heading to JFK Airport it was a normal day you know get up early kissed the wife goodbye and get in a car go to the airport I was traveling to Vegas for a security conference that flight was a packed flight full of other executives and folks going out to attend the conference JetBlue flight 191 was scheduled to depart at 6:55 a.m. the 2300 mile journey to Las Vegas would take five hours Antony and the other passengers boarded at 6:30 a.m. and everyone prepared for takeoff they got on the plane I was in row 10 in the aisle got everything situated started working doing emails and what-have-you at 10:30 a.m. the plane had been in the air for just over three hours everything was normal until I noticed the pilot came out of the cockpit in a very agitated abrasive state I was immediately anxious Antony was so concerned he began filming what he could see happening at the front of the plane the pilot was drinking a lot of water it was small little airplane bottles but he was putting them back pretty quickly he kept wiping his mouth like spittle or like you know stuff building up you could tell he had an agitated state his eyes were not really fixed and just normal and you could see in the faces of the flight crew that they were uncomfortable there was a lot of awkward looks back and forth between the crew so I knew that he was something was not right what I found peculiar was that when this flight attendant walks away from the beverage cart to attend to a passenger the pilot reaches across the beverage cart as if to try and grab her and say hey where you going come back here that was a startling moment for me Antony watched the pilot walk past him and for a moment he disappeared out of youth the pilot finally went to the back of the plane to the restroom he came out of the restroom and proceeded to walk back towards the front of the aircraft about midway he started running a full-on run straight for the cockpit door when he got to the cockpit door he tried breaking into the cockpit he tried kicking the door down pounding on the door I felt like this situation could absolutely turn really really bad really really quick fellow passenger retired NYPD sergeant Paul Baba Kitty's was shocked by the scene the worst-case scenario running through my head is either the person that was banging on the cockpit door was the pilot or a terrorist the flight crew there was two women and a guy they were no match for this gentleman it was a very large guy is probably six four you know fit so I took it as the passengers may need to do something to resolve this escalating situation to fail to take any action could have dire consequences for everyone there was a gentleman I just kind of tapped him on the shoulder and say I think we have a problem he jumped right up didn't even ask a question which was terrific as Anthony confronted the captain but the passengers saw something was wrong some began to film the confrontation many thoughts were going through my head at that moment one of which was what's agitating him what is he looking for what is his objective we grabbed him and just pulled him away from the door and we were just holding on to him he was resisting and struggling a bit it was then the pilot started speaking to the passengers he looked at me but as he looked at me he looked through me and then he started rambling about Iraq and Iran and talking about military actions and things like that he was yelling they got us in Iraq they got us in Iran to mentions of a bomb being on board everyone could see the situation in escalating and he told me we're not going to Sin City and we have a hundred and thirty Souls aboard the plane at that point I realized we're all in trouble 27th of March 2012 10:40 a.m. JetBlue flight 191 was three hours into a five-hour flight to Las Vegas when its captain started behaving erratically [Music] security specialist Antony Antonino was one of a few passengers who had gone to confront the pilot he said it's time to recite the Lord's Prayer I think that's when the three of us that we're holding on to him really just kind of locked eyes and looked at each other without saying a word we just literally put them into the ground [Music] we pulled his legs out put in his face to the ground and then we all stayed right on top of him somebody was holding his head I had his feet somebody else was holding his arms and he was resisting trying to get up and pretty big guy so it was a struggle helping Antony hold down the pilot was retired police sergeant Paul Baba Kitty's we were able to pin the pilot on the belly of the plane and restraining him it was a very difficult task because although he seemed docile while it was being restrained at any second he could become violent and you have to be prepared for those acts of violence as passengers restrained the pilot Amborella JetBlue 181 Berkley the co-pilot declared an emergency once we had him on the ground the crew notified the first officer and we started a very very rapid and steep descent they notified us that they were diverting the aircraft to Amarillo Texas it was announced to the cabin the plane would be on the ground in 20 minutes Anthony Paul and the other passengers would have to restrain the pilot until then that 20 minutes seems like an eternity we just knew we had to keep pressure on this person we decided to just stay put and stay on top of him he tried to get up and struggle a few times but we just held him on the ground it was really was not much talking it's interesting in those moments where there's such a heightened sense of danger and adrenaline there was not much talk at all the plane touched down at 11:15 a.m. waiting outside and ready to board with the emergency services [Music] the door opened and I saw a uniformed police officer enter the plane with the incident under control many people began filming a lot of officials came on board the handcuffed him we stepped out of the way they had control of him at that point and then they took him off the air once he was off the plane I felt greatly relieved that the threat had been diffused no one was injured including the pilot this was a good ending in the aftermath of this event the actions of the copilot was seen as averting a potential disaster when the captain had left the cockpit in a distressed state the copilot had locked the cockpit door and refused to let the pilot back in I feel a lifetime debt of gratitude to the first officer for being able to stay composed stay calm and be able to course the pilot out of the cockpit so that he could take control and stabilize the cockpit so that we would get somewhere and safely the FBI took the planes cockpit voice recorder to investigate with a terrorism or another factor played a part in this incident the pilot was charged with interfering with a flight crew but found not guilty due to insanity the pilot later claimed JetBlue had been negligent and sued for fourteen point nine million dollars he said he had been suffering from a brain seizure which should have been spotted the case has yet to come to trial you

Channel: Channel 5

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Id: zfoEQTxfQMU

Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 24 2020