Aviation Update

The travails of Jet Blue flight 191 (a flight number which doesn't have very good luck in aviation) is perhaps one of the more amazing stories in transportation in a good while. It appears a real-world "Cain Mutiny" occurred, perhaps creating another pilot hero in the process, as we learn more about events leading up to the meltdown:

Captain Clayton Osbon told his co-pilot that "things don't matter" shortly after JetBlue Flight 191 from New York departed Tuesday, according to an affidavit. Court documents say Osbon told the plane's first officer that "we're not going to Vegas" and began what he described as a sermon.

"The (first officer) became really worried when Osbon said `we need to take a leap of faith,"' according to the sworn affidavit given by an FBI agent. "Osbon started trying to correlate completely unrelated numbers like different radio frequencies, and he talked about sins in Las Vegas."

Of course this is a news report, meaning it might be 50 percent inaccurate. The only sure way to ascertain what went on that caused the junior pilot to take an extraordinary leap of 'faith' and lock out the senior man is a perusal of the Cockpit Voice Recorder, which contains a tape of the final 2 hours of the flight.

I won't begin to speculate on what might have caused a 'well-respected' flight standards captain of a major airline to breakdown in such a manner, but it seems the media might be leading us towards a religious fanatic explanation, Christian this time. It would be interesting to know why he was referencing Iraq, Iran, AQ, Israel, bombs, etc, but such could be seen as lining up for the last great battle in the Middle East, which most Christians believe is nigh or somewhat nigh. Again, the CVR might shine some light. Hopefully the approaching Mayan end of time in December won't exacerbate these kind of things going forward.