Police disarmed a distraught pilot who had threatened to “harm himself in a spectacular fashion” about an hour before he was scheduled to take a JetBlue flight from Boston Logan Airport to an undisclosed destination. TSA spokesman George Naccara told WBZ TV the unidentified pilot made the threat in an e-mail to his ex-girlfriend, a flight attendant, who apparently reported it to a federal air marshal. The marshal called the state police and seven troopers confronted the pilot in the pilot’s lounge at the airport. He surrendered a handgun but JetBlue would not confirm whether he is a federal flight deck officer and permitted to carry firearms onto aircraft.
Naccara said the threat did not mention harming anyone else. After handing over the gun, the pilot agreed to go with the officers to a local hospital for a checkup. JetBlue has taken him off the flight schedule for “health-related issues.”
