JetBlue pilot indicted for flight disruption

A JetBlue Airways captain accused of disrupting a Las Vegas-bound flight when he left the cockpit screaming about religion and terrorists has been indicted, according to court documents posted Thursday.

A grand jury in Lubbock indicted Clayton F. Osbon on one count of interference of a flight crew — the same charge he's been held on since shortly after the March 27 incident.

Osbon's attorney, Dean Roper, declined to comment, the attorney's secretary said Thursday.

Witnesses on Flight 191 say Osbon ran through the cabin yelling about Jesus and al-Qaida. The first officer locked him out of the cockpit and passengers wrestled the captain to the floor. They restrained him with seat belt extenders and zip tie handcuffs while the first officer diverted the flight to land in Amarillo.

Osbon is undergoing a court-ordered psychiatric exam to determine whether he was legally sane and can stand trial.

Under federal law, a conviction for interfering with a flight crew can bring up to 20 years in prison. The offense is defined as assaulting or intimidating the crew, interfering with its duties or diminishes its ability to do operate the plane.

Investigators say Osbon told his co-pilot, "things just don't matter," and rambled incoherently about religion shortly after the flight departed from New York. His behavior became more erratic as the flight wore on, prosecutors say, and ended with the tense struggle in the cabin.

Passengers said the pilot seemed disoriented, jittery and constantly sipped water when he first stormed from the cockpit and marched through the cabin. Then, they said, he began to rant about threats linked to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan after crew members tried to calm him down at the back of the plane.

The prosecution motion that sought the psychiatric exam said the events of that day "establish a likelihood that Osbon may be suffering from a mental disease or defect."

A flight attendant's ribs were bruised while trying to restrain Osbon, but no one on board was seriously hurt.

A day after the incident JetBlue suspended Osbon pending a review of the flight.

Novelty grenade in package causes World Financial Center building to evacuate

An inert World World II-era grenade, mounted on a plaque and delivered in the mail, caused the lower-Manhattan building 2 World Financial Center to evacuate this morning.

The New York World Financial Center is located across the street from where the twin towers fell on 9/11.

According to news reports, the Japanese bank Nomura Holdings was evacuated after a suspicious package that was X-rayed appeared to reveal a grenade.

Office workers were milling about on the corner and some headed to a local bar. An employee told theWall Street Journal, "People were a little nervous getting outside. But once we left the building everything was fine. Everyone's pretty calm right now."

The NYPD bomb squad was dispatched. Officials determined that what appeared to have been an explosive device through the building X-ray machine was actually a novelty hand grenade on a plaque that read "complaint department, pull the pin," police spokesman Paul Browne said, giving the all-clear.