INSANITY

JetBlue Pilot Found Not Guilty

Judge recognizes insanity plea.

JetBlue is notorious for its eccentric flight attendants, but the airline has some explaining to do for employing a mentally unstable pilot. 49-year-old Clayton Osbon, the pilot who was arrested after having a psychological meltdown mid-flight, was found not guilty on Tuesday by reason of insanity, a plea that his lawyer filed in the case. The ruling was made by a federal judge in Texas following a psychologist’s testimony that Osbon “suffered from a severe mental disease.” Though the judge determined that Osbon had committed an offense in interfering with a flight crew, she ordered him to be held in a “low-security” prison pending further examination. On a Las Vegas-bound flight, Osbon told the copilot “thins don’t matter” and “we’re not going to Vegas” before he began talking nonsense, leading the copilot to lock him out of the cockpit and make an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas.