http://www.newsday.com/long-island/jetblue-passengers-thought-of-9-11-s-flight-93-1.3629085
When the pilot of JetBlue
Flight 191 bolted through the plane's cabin, banged on the cockpit door and
screamed about Iraq, bombs and al-Qaida -- all at 35,000 feet -- passengers
thought of doomed 9/11 Flight 93.
Paul Babakitis, 51, of Jericho, a retired NYPD sergeant, watched the 49-year-old
pilot's meltdown Tuesday afternoon from a seventh-row seat. So did Jason Levin,
39, of Farmingville, in Seat 1C. Tony Antolino, 40, of Rye, from the 10th row,
also sensed something was amiss.
Like United Flight 93 passengers, they sprang into action when Babakitis asked
for help to wrestle pilot Clayton Osbon to the floor as a co-pilot steered the
craft to safety.
MORE: FBI's filing on what allegedly happened | Latest photos
"We have to get him on the ground," said Babakitis, recalling the moment Osbon's
erratic behavior began. "They all understood."
Babakitis, who heads PGB Executive Investigations, helped collar Osbon for
several minutes as the plane -- en route to Las Vegas -- was diverted to
Amarillo, Texas. The fast-moving in-flight drama evoked the horrors of 9/11,
according to several passengers on board.
"Of course I thought of 9/11, where I was at," said Babakitis, who worked in the
NYPD's command center helping coordinate the response to the attacks.
The passengers of Flight 93 attacked the terrorists who took over the plane
after they realized it had been hijacked. The Boeing 757 crashed in Shanksville,
Pa. No one survived. Three other hijacked planes crashed that day into the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Tuesday, Babakitis and about a half dozen of his fellow passengers were pressed
into service, and were determined to avoid the same fate.
"What I said to myself," Babakitis mused Wednesday, after he arrived at a
security conference in Las Vegas, 'This is not happening on this flight if I can
do anything about it.' We held him down. I individually could not have held him
down myself."
Just what happened to make the respected pilot unravel is being investigated.
But the quick-thinking passengers who rose to defuse a potential tragedy said
they know they acted properly and may have saved the lives of 141 passengers and
crew.
"Everyone came together as one, came together as New Yorkers to stop the
situation," said Levin, a security system installer. "In those five seconds when
adrenaline hits, your life does cross in front of your eyes. I thought of my
wife and my kids."
The father of 7-year-old twins, a boy and girl, Levin said he leaped from his
first-row seat as Osbon shouted terrifying phrases like: "Israel, Iran, we got
him, we got him, yeahhhh!"
Osbon's lips were red, dry and chapped, as if he'd been skiing, Levin said. Both
Babakitis and Levin said their arms were sore from holding him down. He broke
through some of the plastic restraints supplied by the airline, so the
passengers used their belts to hold him down.
"Holding someone down with all your might for 20 minutes is exhausting," Levin
said.
Added Babakitis: "My arm hurts; it's kind of bruised actually."
Antolino, chief marketing officer for Eyelock Corp., said the drama unfolded
gradually with Osbon traipsing down the aisle to a lavatory in the back of the
plane. Osbon then all but sprinted to the front and tried to get into the
cockpit after the co-pilot had changed the security code on the door, Antolino
said.
Antolino found out that crew members were trying to lure Osbon away from the
cockpit. When he realized he'd been tricked, Osbon became angry and fumbled with
the security code to the cockpit door.
That was Antolino's signal to do something, he said, adding that he acted on
impulse. He reached out into the aisle and clutched the rambling Osbon.
Don Davis, 53, of Massapequa, was sitting in row four on his way to a security
conference when, he said, Osbon "nearly took my head off when he came running
forward" up the aisle. He said quick thinking by passengers and crew averted a
disaster.
"I was saying Hail Marys in my seat," said Davis, who also had Flight 93
passengers on his mind. "It didn't end well for them. If it wasn't for the
co-pilot, I don't think it would have ended well for us."
With Kery Murakami, Gregan Wingert and Ellen Yan
