Clayton Osbon, the JetBlue pilot who suffered an inflight meltdown in March, was found not guilty by reason of insanity on Tuesday.
Osbon had been charged with the federal crime of interference with a flight crew for the incident. A judge found that he had committed that offense, but agreed with a psychological assessment of Osbon that stated he “suffered from a severe mental disease or defect that impaired his ability” to know what he was doing. He was remanded back into the care of a psychiatric facility.
On March 27, 2012, Osbon was the captain of JetBlue Flight 191 from New York JFK to Las Vegas. According to the federal complaint, after taking off from JFK, Osbon began acting bizarrely, yelling at air traffic controllers, eventually turning off the radios and telling the first officer, “we’re not going to Vegas.”
When Osbon abruptly left the cockpit, the concerned first officer locked him out, at which point Osbon began running up and down the aisle. He soon attempted to smash the cockpit door down, at which point he was restrained by other passengers.
The first officer, with help from an off duty JetBlue captain who had been sitting in the main cabin, made an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas.
