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Terror in the Airways

Came out of the cockpit this time. Co-pilot seeks God over mid-Atlantic. Aircrew, Canadian soldier, tackle and bind co-pilot. Times of London:  

A co-pilot at the controls of a passenger jet bound for Heathrow was forcibly removed from the cockpit and bound hand and foot after he began “asking for God” 30,000 feet over the Atlantic.

Passengers aboard Air Canada’s Flight AC848 from Toronto to London on Monday said the flight officer started shouting and crying at the controls when they were less than an hour from Heathrow.

His colleagues, helped by an off-duty member of the Canadian Armed Forces, took the man out of the cockpit, apparently in the middle of a mental breakdown, tied his wrists and ankles in front of astonished passengers. He was then handcuffed to a seat while the flight diverted to Shannon airport, in the West of Ireland.

After the jet landed at Shannon with only the captain at the controls, the co-pilot was taken off the plane and put in a waiting ambulance, which took him to an acute psychiatric unit.

The 149 passengers were taken to hotels while the airline arranged for a replacement crew to take the aircraft on to Heathrow, where it landed at 4.15pm on Monday, eight hours behind schedule.

Sean Finucane, a passenger, told the Canadian broadcaster CBC that the co-pilot “was swearing and asking for God. He specifically said he wants to talk to God. He was yelling loudly but didn’t sound intoxicated When they tried to put his shoes on later, he swore and threatened people. He was very, very distressed.”

Another passenger, writing on the website flyertalk.com, said that the co-pilot was pinned down in seat 12A, a window seat in the first row of the economy class section. “It was quite an experience,” the passenger wrote. “The entire mini-cabin could hear the whole thing. Not for delicate ears. The soldier and the doctors [who were passengers] were great.”

The writer said that the flight crew were “calm and professional throughout”.

… 

In 1999 a suicidal co-pilot was blamed for the crash of an EgyptAir flight from New York that came down in the Atlantic with the loss of 217 lives after he was heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: “I put my faith in God.”

Topics: Canada

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:20 am on Thursday, January 31, 2008

5 Responses to “Terror in the Airways”

1. S. Weasel Says:
   January 31st, 2008 at 11:04 am

   In 1999 a suicidal co-pilot was blamed for the crash of an EgyptAir flight from New York that came down in the Atlantic with the loss of 217 lives after he was heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: “I put my faith in God.”

   Errr…didn’t he actually say “Allahu Akbar”? So what aren’t they telling us about THIS guy? Which was it…God or Allah?

   I asked the question on the Times site, but somehow my remark didn’t get published…

2. RebeccaH Says:
   January 31st, 2008 at 12:48 pm

   Good question, Weasel. That was my first thought, too, but something tells me that wasn’t the case this time.

3. Robert Says:
   January 31st, 2008 at 3:14 pm

   Weasel:

   Read this about the EgyptAir case:
   “The Crash of EgyptAir 990″ by William Langewiesche in the November 2001, Atlantic Monthly:

   Two years afterward the U.S. and Egyptian governments are still quarreling over the cause—a clash that grows out of cultural division, not factual uncertainty. A look at the flight data from a pilot’s perspective, with the help of simulations of the accident, points to what the Egyptians must already know: the crash was caused not by any mechanical failure but by a pilot’s intentional act.

4. Dave Surls Says:
   January 31st, 2008 at 5:55 pm

   Interesting. The Times also has a story talking about the mental health issues of someone named Britney Spears, whom they mention by name, but in this story the person suffering an apparent mental health crisis is referred to only as “co-pilot”.

   Same thing on the CBC site.

   Wonder why?

   Isn’t “who” an essential element in all news stories…or just in stories about American pop stars?

5. sarah rolph Says:
   February 1st, 2008 at 12:01 am

   This sort of thing can sometimes be a symptom of a non-psychological medical disease.

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