Judge: Disruptive JetBlue Pilot To Stand Trial

A judge says a JetBlue Airways pilot who left the cockpit during a flight and screamed about religion and terrorists is mentally competent to stand trial.

U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled Friday in Amarillo after hearing evidence about 49-year-old Clayton F. Osbon’s mental competency. She also ordered his psychiatric evaluation be sealed.

Osbon recently underwent a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. He was indicted in April on one charge of interfering with a flight crew. The allegation stems from a March 27 incident after the plane left New York bound for Las Vegas.

Osbon allegedly ran through the plane’s cabin yelling about Jesus and al-Qaida. The first officer locked him out of the cockpit and passengers wrestled him to the floor before the plane made an emergency landing in Amarillo.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)