At risk of revealing my bias, I do wonder if he would have been treated differently had his airplane landed in California rather than Texas.
I think the FBI even operates in California.
None of us were there so we really don't know the nature of his outburst. Everyone assumes he is suffering from mental illness. Perhaps the FBI determined some other reason for his outburst, thus the arrest. None of us know.
Absolutely. As we've discussed above, things like meningitus, brain tumors and side effects from drugs and supplements have in the past caused sudden aberrant behavior.
It is not an easy matter to determine whether he was being treated on the QT and thus committing fraud on his 6 month FAA medical application.
And that points out the 'Catch 22' of a pilot seeking help for mental issues. If you don't seek help, things may get worse until you commit an act that can put yourself and others at risk. If you get help and the feds find out, you are probably grounded and perhaps facing criminal charges if you didn't disclose the treatment. Like everything else with the feds, a lot depends on how things are documented, e.g. was it 'counseling' or 'treatment' and was a diagnosis recorded?
In recent years the FAA Aeromedical folks have been cross checking disability payments, armed forces medical discharges and other records to catch folks who claim to be disabled for pay purposes but healthy for flying.
One of the guys who got caught lying on his FAA medical application while drawing Social Security disability pay tried to sue the government for violating his privacy since he is HIV positive. He was unsuccessful:
Supreme Court limits damages in HIV-infected pilot's case