Officials: JetBlue pilot Clayton Osbon should stay in custody
JetBlue pilot Clayton Frederick Osbon, right, is escorted to a waiting vehicle by FBI agents as he is released from The Pavilion at Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. (April 2, 2012) Credit: AP
The JetBlue pilot who went on a bizarre midair rant and was subsequently charged with disrupting a flight from New York to Las Vegas should remain in custody, federal prosecutors in Texas told a judge Monday.
Clayton Frederick Osbon, 49, was taken in handcuffs to U.S. Northern District Court of Texas in Amarillo for his court appearance Monday, the first time the pilot has been seen in public since last Tuesday's incident that caused a midair scare for 141 passengers and crew.
Prosecutors Monday asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Clinton E. Averitte to detain Osbon, saying "there are no conditions of release which will reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community," according to court records.
A hearing on that motion is set for Thursday morning.
Osbon, who said little during Monday's brief court proceeding, smiled at his wife, Connye Osbon, and JetBlue employees as they watched from the courtroom gallery. He was not asked to enter a plea because the court proceeding was not an arraignment, prosecutors said.
Osbon's attorneys, E. Dean Roper and Thomas Riney, both of Amarillo, did not return calls for comment.
Meanwhile, Averitte ordered Osbon to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal until his detention hearing Thursday. Osbon is being held at the Randall County Jail in Amarillo.
Prosecutors have charged Osbon, who lives in the small town of Richmond Hill outside Savannah, Ga., with interfering with a flight crew. Under federal law, a conviction can bring up to 20 years in prison.
On the March 27 flight from Kennedy Airport, bound for Las Vegas, Osbon behaved erratically and uttered comments about terrorists, Sept. 11, 2001, and Jesus.
"We're not going to Vegas," Osbon told his co-pilot.
The co-pilot locked him out of cockpit and passengers tackled and restrained him until Flight 191 made an emergency landing at Rick Husband Airport in Amarillo.
A flight attendant suffered bruising to the ribs, but no one was seriously injured.
A spokeswoman for JetBlue said the captain, who has flown for the carrier for 11 years, had an unspecified "a medical emergency."
Sunday, Connye Osbon released a statement thanking the plane's crew and passengers for their handling of the situation.
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