Well said, boiflyer.

If Kate was a US citizen I bet we would not see the end of the story. Would have caught the attention of big lawers & politicians!

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They will be sued.

Seriously, that's a poor argument.

That's like saying "well, the airport didn't blow up" in response to someone joking about a bomb.

Yes, the bomb jokester and the pranksters at MSP were ill-advised.

Again, the difference is accountability. The bomb jokester gets to have an arrest put on his/her record, and the TSAers get away with nothing.


You speak so confidently about how this is a nothing story due to the timing. Yet, the timing doesn't seem to bother you when you make your case for making the consequences, or lack thereof, such a non-issue.

This would not be such an issue if the consequences would be so severe for the passenger. If we did anything remotely close to this, we'd earn ourselves an arrest or a permanent spot on a watch list.

THAT is the point that you either don't want to, or are incapable of addressing.

PASS systems or written reprimands are not the same thing as an arrest record, legal costs and a shattered sense of dignity.

This event occured over a year ago. Instead of speculating on what should happen, does anybody have any true knowledge on what DID happen in response to this incident?

I am wondering if this is why the story resurfaced a year later ... is somebody's attorney stirring the pot to help settlement talks?

I tend to agree with you on that and they should be punished.
cheers
howie

You have apples and oranges here. I agree that asthmatics with anxiety or panic disorder can escalate themselves into respiratory distress, and may or may not respond to inhalers, anxiolytics or placebos, but we don't know if that was the case with this woman.

Only if the underlying problem is anxiety or panic disorder. Not every asthmatic in the world has anxiety and panic disorder. Try telling a 24 year old male in a severe asthma attack that "it's all in your head". You do realize that young adult males are at the highest risk for sudden death due to asthma?

I'm talking about the internal adrenaline surge you referred to when people have an acute "fight or flight" response that supossedly is protective. Your own adrenaline production is not going to prevent asthma attacks, otherwise there would be no documented cases of exercise induced asthma.

Unless you have personal knowledge of this woman's medical history that you're not sharing, I find it a little suspect to dismiss her symptoms as purely anxiety related. I'm speaking from the perspective of having treated asthma and anxiety disorders (sometimes in the same patients) for over 15 years in an emergency setting, so your mileage will vary. :D

Agreed we don't know if that's the case anymore than we know any of the other facts of the story. But it is unlikely that a practical joke would put someone into an asthma attack "as more people surrounded her." That sounds like a panic attack.


I am not saying asthma is "all in the head" or that "every asthmatic in the world has anxiety and panic disorder". But, difficulty breathing brought on by a sudded stressor as described is likely not asthma. But if they write panic attack, it doesn't have the effect.


What do 24 year old males have to do with this discussion. Nothing, I am not implying we should ignore asthmatics and I take that as an insult that you would imply that.


I don't have any more knowledge than anyone else about this women. I also don't have knowledge of the accounts of the others involved either. Exercise has definitive proven physiologic mechanisms for bronchospasm within the lungs themselves. The mediators produced have direct contact within the lungs. "Stress" used in this context does not have any proven basis. Again, I am not implying they don't need treatment, but in this case I think "severe asthmatic attack" was used for effect and not the likely medical diagnosis.

That's equivalent to passengers saying that they have a bomb and then saying "April Fools". :rolleyes:

I think the context of the story was April Fool's jokes gone awry. And since there was nothing current for this year, they dug up this story from the archives. Just my opinion. Like I said, slow news days tend to focus more on themes rather than current events....that is, unless something "more newsworthy" such as the true identity of Anna Nicole Smith's baby's father is revealed or Sanjaya survives yet another round of American Idol.

If any of us in the private sector played this sort of joke on a customer, who in turn had a severe health issue as a result, we would be immediately terminated. If any of us "played a joke" on a TSA screener, we would, at a minimum, hear threats of "do you want to fly today" and face arrest or civil fines. I'm not sure why you are trying to deny this - there are signs warning folks that joking is not permitted, posted in many airports.

Why are people so upset by this? Why so bent out of shape? Because its hypocracy. Most of us play by one set of rules, at work or in the airport. TSA employees not only play by another set of rules, they gleefully enforce them on the traveling public.

The TSA screeners should have spent a few nights in jail for reckless endangerment - especially for failing to properly render aid.

I disagree! I think this 'lightening-up' TSA attitude is commendable! Finally! A new face on the right way to do the wrong thing!

Bet the TSA folks had fun, too. Bet they ain't now, however...

I don't think it was all a joke....

Maybe it is the paper trying to put a spin on the situation, but IMO it looks like her bag did in fact trigger an alarm and the joke was a TSA officer saying "That's it , call the police". If the bag really did trigger the alarm then searching the bag was not part of the joke either. Now I am not saying the joke was appropriate and it is unprofessional, but if they said that to me I think I would laugh it off because I travel enough to know the procedure. That said an infrequent traveller would not know procedure and would have good reason to worry.

:rolleyes:

Yeah, right.

Since when is the TSA human?

Sanosuke!