The co-pilot of a Heathrow-bound plane was dragged kicking and screaming from the cockpit after suffering a mental breakdown while in control of the flight. He began yelling and “invoking God” as the Air Canada 767 flew at 37,000 feet over the Atlantic. He was held down by other crew members and a passenger, a member of the Canadian armed forces. The co-pilot then had restraints fastened to his wrists and ankles and was handcuffed to a seat. The flight from Toronto made an emergency landing in Shannon and the co-pilot, who had been crying and screaming according to witnesses, was taken off the plane. He was taken by ambulance to a psychiatric ward where he is being treated for a suspected nervous breakdown. Passenger Sean Finucane told of his shock as he witnessed the co-pilot being carried out of the cockpit in restraints. He said today: “He was very, very distraught. He was yelling loudly at times. When they tried to put his shoes on later he swore and he threatened people. His voice was clear so he didn’t sound drunk or anything. He was swearing and was very distressed.”
Mr Finucane, from Lancashire, told how the pilot kept shouting: “I need to talk to you God.” He described how passengers watched a crew member and the soldier carry the co-pilot out of the cockpit, through first class and into economy. The co-pilot then intermittently yelled obscenities and sobbed.
He must have had the chicken. Congratulations to the crew and the Canadian soldier for averting a potential disaster.
The in-flight movie was The Exorcist.
Jeez, poor coach people, couldn’t they have put this loon away in the baggage hold, or at least chloroformed him?
He must’ve thought that when he got up that high he’d be close enough for god to hear him. Oh no wait. He must not have thought at all.
Maybe we need air marshals with tranq darts.
Maybe he had just heard that the Fed cut interest rates another half point.
Maybe he had the fish for dinner.
That’s one of the million reasons why I vowed never to fly Air Canada ever again!!!
A SilkAir pilot committed suicide in 97, and took everyone on the plane with him. The co-pilot tried to wrestle control of the plane. Here’s a TinyURL link.
http://tinyurl.com/2kj8us
“through first class and into economy”
Nice! yeah, don’t inconvienence the rich f*cks in first class! 🙂
I wonder why god didn’t help him?
#9–julieb==I think you trumped my nascent post: “Who else should you turn to in a time of need?” Good Job!
What the hell is it with these god-bothering nutjobs??!
Why does religion turn normal intelligent people into raving assholes!
Economy class entertainment…
“The co-pilot of a Heathrow-bound plane was dragged kicking and screaming from the cockpit after suffering a mental breakdown while in control of the flight.”
Well this is an improvement! Usually they are stumbling off the plane drunk!
The co-pilot of a Heathrow-bound plane was dragged kicking and screaming from the cockpit after suffering a mental breakdown while in control of the flight.
Uh…if he was the co-pilot then how was he in control of the flight? The pilot is control of the flight…unless her already ascended to heaven. 😉
Cheers
That was poor timing on dropping those couple dozen tabs of acid.
WOW! way to go to the rest of the crew. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one. My late wife was a flight attendant, and this kind of thing usually happened in the cabin not the cockpit.. . It pays to have a big burley captain and a few soldiers/cops/black belt karate instructors on board. The #2 will probably never fly again.
Interesting story. He obviously had a breakdown and started dragging god into there because he supposedly believed in god. I always wonder what these people would start to yell if they would not believe in god – or whether this would make such a big difference to his life that he wouldn’t have had this breakdown at all…
And this story represents what real security while flying entails. Never mind the shoe searches or matches-lighters-liquid confiscating, the next hijackers are going to have a handful with riled up passengers and crew members.
The days of people passively obeying hijacker commands are over. One day there will be a youtube vid of hijackers getting pummeled into submission with seat cushions and we will all finally laugh, breathing a sigh of relief.
Sheesh, everybody, he was experiencing The Rapture. A believer in God, he was suddenly whisked off the plane “in a twinkling”.
Next he will be wearing “Rapture Pajamas” (kinda tight in the sleeves).
#15, TIHZ_HO:
also still called the co-pilot by most laymen, the correct term has long been “1st Officer” or “FO”.
Both, the captain and the FO are fully qualified pilots, both well capable of flying the plane alone in an emergency situation. Normally, however, they fly in a mode known as CRM or Crew Resource Management where one is the PF – the Pilot Flying and the other one is the PM – the Pilot Monitoring. Those roles are exchanged every so many hours of flight times or every other flight leg. There is only three or four things in normal CRM mode that are reserved to the captain.
pj
You might think, God would have told him to pull it together.
#21 pjakobs Thanks for that explanation! 🙂
Cheers
Should have been thrown out the door
“See if God saves you now”
There’s no such thing as a “nervous breakdown”.
#14, pedro,
You funny ole horney bastard.
“There was…. something…… on the wing!”
Has anyone seen his name?
“Allah” is usually translated as “God”.
#2- I’m betting their emergency kit includes some pretty heavy sedatives. I’m surprised they didn’t have him doped up.
#22- Isn’t it funny how when God talks to people, he tells them “make sure you act like a loon, because people are more likely to believe you if you act loony.”
Either God has a sick sense of humor, or this guy is one pickle short of a barrel.
@julieb:
Silly goose – god doesn’t fly commercial airlines; she prefers charters!