Pilot began asking for God while flying plane
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PASSENGERS on board a transatlantic flight yesterday described the horrifying moment when the co-pilot had a mental breakdown and began "asking for God" 30,000ft over the Atlantic.
The Heathrow-bound Air Canada flight was forced to divert to Shannon airport on Monday where the co-pilot was forcibly removed from the cockpit and handcuffed.
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 767 when it was less than an hour from Heathrow.
He was taken out of the cockpit, apparently in the middle of a mental breakdown, by flight crew colleagues helped by an off-duty member of the Canadian armed forces.
The co-pilot, whose wife has since arrived in Ireland to be at her husband's hospital bedside, then had his wrists and ankles bound in front of stunned passengers and was handcuffed to a seat while the flight diverted to Shannon.
After the jet landed at Shannon with only the captain at the controls, the co-pilot was taken off the plane and put in a waiting ambulance, which took him to an acute psychiatric unit.
The 149 passengers were taken to nearby hotels as the airline arranged for a replacement crew to take the aircraft on to Heathrow, where it landed at 4.15pm on Monday, eight hours behind schedule.
Sean Finucane, a passenger on the flight, told the Canadian broadcaster CBC that the co-pilot "was swearing and asking for God".
"He specifically said he wants to talk to God. He was yelling loudly but didn't sound intoxicated. When they tried to put his shoes on later, he swore and threatened people. He was very, very distressed."
Another passenger, writing on the website flyertalk.com, said the co-pilot was pinned down in seat 12A, a window seat in the first row of the economy class section.
Oxygen
"It was quite an experience," the passenger wrote. "The entire mini-cabin could hear the whole thing.
"Not for delicate ears. The soldier and the doctors (who were passengers) were great."
Strict regulations meant that the captain, who had to fly the aircraft solo, had to wear an oxygen mask for the remainder of the flight.
The hospital where the co-pilot is being treated refused to comment yesterday but it is understood that he is still in its psychiatric unit.
In 1999 a suicidal co-pilot was blamed for the crash of an EgyptAir flight from New York that came down in the Atlantic with the loss of 217 lives after he was heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: "I put my faith in God." (©The Times, London).
- David Sharrock
