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The JetBlue pilot who melted down during a flight from New York to Las Vegas this week has been identified. Captain Clayton Osbon will have his name in the record books, no doubt, as the guy who gave passengers something new to worry about: what the person controlling the plane is really up to. But the names that we may never know or will soon forget are the people who put the "friendly" into our skies.
Let me put it to you this way: the passengers that you look at sideways when you're on the plane, worrying that they could be packing a bomb that the TSA missed? Those are the kind of people who became sudden heroes on JetBlue Flight 191 this week.
Here they were, on a trip to Sin City of all places. They'd boarded their plane, they had their fun money all squared away for gambling, their plans set to ride that crazy rollercoaster and check out those famous fountains. It's the kind of trip that screams "lay back and let it happen.
And then.
All of a sudden.
Here is some guy in the middle of the aisles screaming about a bomb and cautioning them all to pray. The airway is calling it a "medical episode," and the FBI is investigating, so we don't know yet what really happened to Osbon. I do I know I would have been terrified if I were on that flight, but I'm going to bet there would have been a teeny weeny part of me going "Oh, come ON! I finally get a vacation, and this jerk has to ruin it?"
But those passengers kicked their ready to relax butts back into gear, and they helped take Osbon down. Along with the smart co-pilot who locked him out of the cockpit, and the crew that convinced him he had to go to the back of the plane, it was the passengers who turned a scary situation in the skies into something that will be just a blip on the radar in a few days when Kim Kardashian gets a new boyfriend or another celebrity tries to convince us that we should feed our kids like wild animals.
It turns out these everyday folks had to physically restrain Osbon -- JetBlue is reviewing its procedures after it turns out the restraints on board were flimsy pieces of plastic -- but they held it together. They. The people. Normal Americans who came together to work toward a common goal: keeping each other safe.
That's pretty impressive, isn't it? Knowing that, when push comes to shove, 10 years after 9/11, people still have that camaraderie and feeling for fellow man? That in the middle of one of the most divisive political seasons we've seen, people will simply do for other people?
Get a load of one of these everyday heroes talking about what went down on JetBlue Flight 191:
Wow. With all they've been through, and all they've done, here's hoping the airline industry is rewarding them big time. Those passengers may have just revived our faith in flying.
What would you have done in that situation?
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