A pilot, who had to be restrained after a mid-flight outburst about Al-Qaeda and a bomb threat, is now in FBI custody, the head of JetBlue airline said yesterday.
Flight from New York to Las Vegas, Nevada was diverted to Amarillo, Texas for an emergency landing after the pilot suddenly began screaming about terror threats outside the cockpit.
Reports said the pilot, who was also the captain on the flight, went to a restroom just outside the cockpit and when he emerged began shouting “Iraq, Al-Qaeda, terrorism, we’re all going down!”
Male passengers scrambled to help restrain the pilot.
Is there anybody out there?
Billions of potentially habitable planets may exist in our galaxy, the Milky Way, according to a study.
Around 100 “super-Earths” may be found on our galactic doorstep, at distances less than 30 light years from the sun. Astronomers came up with the prediction after conducting a survey of red dwarf stars, which account for 80% of stars in the Milky Way.
The international team was led by Dr Xavier Bonfils, from Grenoble University in France, who said: “Because red dwarfs are so common – there are about 160 billion of them in the Milky Way – this leads us to the astonishing result that there are tens of billions of these planets in our galaxy alone.” The research is reported in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Dustin Hoffman’s lament
Movie legend Dustin Hoffman has lamented the end of Hollywood’s golden age, criticising the industry for focusing on profits instead of making quality films.
The two-time Oscar-winning star of Tootsie, Rain Man and The Graduate complained that studios no longer talked about “good work”.
Hoffman, 74, told TV Times: “When you’re in the golden age, you don’t realise it. They didn’t tell me that when I was making films in the 1960s and even the 1970s.”
Harvey Oswald’s gravestone
A car museum in Illinois has become the home of what is believed to be Lee Harvey Oswald’s original tombstone.
Historic Auto Attractions features classic cars along with artefacts of presidential history.
In one wing dedicated to President John F. Kennedy, there are clothes belonging to the family and the gravestone of his suspected assassin.
Fonda plays Nancy Reagan
Actress Jane Fonda, a lightning rod for US conservatives since her controversial anti-Vietnam War activism, will be playing the wife of former US president Ronald Reagan, a Republican icon.
Variety magazine reported this week that director Lee Daniels had tapped Fonda, 74, to play former first lady Nancy Reagan in an “all-star ensemble” being recruited for a film about a butler who served US presidents from 1952 to 1986.
Forest Whitaker is reportedly close to signing a deal to play the butler and talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is in talks to play his wife, Variety said.
Liam Neeson is being considered for the role of Vietnam-era president Lyndon Johnson, while John Cusack could play President Richard Nixon, it said.