The Times:
Airline pilot threatened to kill 200 passengers if wife left him
An Italian pilot who warned his estranged wife that he would crash his passenger jet if she left him was stopped by police from taking the controls of a Rome-Japan flight minutes before it was due to take off.
Officers at Fiumicino airport were alerted by the man’s wife after he sent her a text message threatening to kill himself and the 200 passengers on board. The incident, which has been kept secret until now, occurred in January last year — two months before Andreas Lubitz, a German pilot, deliberately crashed his Germanwings A320 into the Alps, killing 149 passengers and crew.
The Italian pilot is in his 40s but has not been named. He was married with children, and already known to police in Padua, Italy, after his wife reported him for mistreatment. When she announced she was leaving him, he threatened to commit suicide. When that failed to convince her to change her mind, he sent the text saying he would kill himself as well as the passengers on his flight that night.
She immediately contacted police, who alerted officials at Fiumicino airport. A substitute pilot was given control of the flight, with the passengers left unaware of the switch.
The pilot was suspended and is still undergoing psychiatric evaluation, Italian media reported yesterday. The airline concerned has not been named.......