Pilot tackled by passengers during mental breakdown

The captain of a US airliner who had to be restrained after running through the cabin screaming appeared to have suffered a mental breakdown, passengers said.

They first noticed something wrong when the pilot, Clayton Osbon, came out of the cockpit, did not close the door and tried to force his way into an occupied toilet. The JetBlue captain’s co-workers tried to calm him as he became more jittery, coaxing him to the back of the plane while making sure — above all — he did not get back near the plane’s controls.

Then, he sprinted up the cabin’s aisle — ranting about a bomb, screaming “They’re going to take us down!” and urging confused passengers to pray.