The JetBlue pilot whose midair freakout diverted a Las Vegas-bound jet and gave 150 passengers the fright of their lives was freed from federal custody yesterday — and he still has a job with the airline.
Clayton Osbon, 49 — who in July was found not guilty by reason of insanity of interfering with a flight crew — was released after a federal court hearing in Amarillo, Texas.
“This is a bad situation for you and your family, but you are fortunate to have the type of immediate support that you have,” Judge Mary Lou Robinson told Osbon.
Robinson barred Osbon “from boarding or attempting to board” any aircraft, private or commercial, in the United States or abroad.
He also is required to seek treatment at a psychiatric hospital, and will have to undergo continued psychiatric monitoring.
She also barred him from communicating with anyone who was aboard JetBlue Flight 191 from Kennedy Airport to Las Vegas on March 27.
The flight was diverted to Amarillo after Osbon’s first officer locked him out of the cockpit.
“Pray f–king now for Jesus Christ . . . This plane will never make it to Vegas . . . We’re all going down!” Osbon yelled as frightened passengers pinned him to the cabin floor.
He declined comment as he left the courthouse. He planned to drive 1,300 miles home to Georgia with a JetBlue colleague.
“It’s been a long ordeal for everyone involved, especially Mr. Osbon,” said Dean Roper, his lawyer.
Osbon, one of JetBlue’s most senior pilots, still works for the airline but is on “inactive status,” a spokeswoman said. JetBlue declined to elaborate on his exact role with the company.
Soon after Flight 191 left Kennedy, Osbon put a scare in first officer Jason Dowd by saying “things just don’t matter” and yelled over the radio to air controllers that they should be quiet.
Then, according to court papers, Osbon began talking about sins in Las Vegas and told Dowd: “We’re not going to Vegas.”
About 3 1/2 hours into the flight, when Osbon went to the lavatory, Dowd asked an off-duty JetBlue captain to take Osbon’s place — and locked the cockpit door.
When Osbon came out of the lavatory, he began ranting, walked to the back of the plane, then sprinted toward the front and tried to break into the cockpit, witnesses said.
Passengers and flight attendants tackled and restrained him until the plane made an emergency landing in Amarillo.
The government did not contest psychologists’ findings that Osbon suffered from a “severe mental disease or defect.”
At a court hearing in July, a neuropsychologist said Osbon’s psychotic freakout lasted for about a week after his flight.
He said Osbon’s disorder and delusions were “secondary to sleep deprivation.”
The neuropsychologist didn’t say how long Osbon went without sleep before the flight, and his written evaluation of Osbon has been sealed.