Made the Papers

Pilot thrown out of cockpit and tied up after invoking God

By team ⋅ March 27, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The Times, 31st January

A co-pilot at the control of a Heathrow-bound passenger jet was forcible removed from the cockpit and handcuffed after her began ‘asking for God’ at 32,000 feet over the Atlantic.

Passengers aboard Flight AC848, an Air Canada scheduled service from Toronto to London, said the flight officer started shouting and crying at the controls of the Boeing 757 when it was less than an hour from Heathrow.

He was taken out of the cockpit apparently in the middle of mental breakdown, by flight crew colleagues helped by an off-duty member of the Canadian armed forces. The co-pilot then had his wrists and ankles bound, in front of stunned passengers and was handcuffed to a seat while the flight diverted to Shannon, in the West of Ireland.

After the jet landed at Shannon with only the captain at the controls, the co-pilot was taken off the plain and put in a waiting ambulance, which took him to an acute psychiatric unit.