chicagorich

Gee--first it was the drunk guy crashing the gate to get at a DL flight in TX--now this----

Wednesday, October 13, 2004
By The Associated Press

Passenger's outburst leads to jetliner evacuation at LAX

The airline alerted airport police that a woman who was traveling with her mother had made specific threats while the plane was still on the ground.



Authorities evacuated more than 200 passengers and crew from a Delta Airlines flight at LAX Tuesday morning and searched the plane after an outburst by a female passenger.

The incident aboard Atlanta-bound Flight 180 began around 11:15 a.m. when the airline alerted airport police that the adult passenger, who was traveling with her mother, had made specific threats while the plane was still on the ground, according to an LAX statement.

The passenger reportedly began yelling that her head was going to blow up and that the FBI and Mafia were poisoning her.

Checked luggage was removed from the Boeing 767, and an LAPD canine team searched the plane.

The passenger was taken to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for a psychiatric evaluation. The aircraft departed about two hours late.

..

Spiff

I hope they didn't rescreen everyone else because of this idiot's behavior.

RSSrsvp

So let's get this right. She passed through the TSA checkpoint without anything dangerous detected. Her luggage passed through the airport's screening which includes checking for bombs and related explosives, and they still inconvenience the other passengers in such a manner because she said that her head was going to blow up?

What a shame!

chicagorich

Well--maybe her mother really gets on her case and she just happened to be on the plane when she reached her breaking point---you know--like---


"..oh Mother, of course the FA isn't going to prevent you from using the lavatory--they just meant you couldn't stand in line and wait.....ohhh--you drive me crazy with your comments---sometimes I think my head is going to explode....!!!"


"...excuse me?, wait, noo---mother...hellllppp...!!!.."

alexus9

hehehe what a shame. This is where we lost it.

Although I believe there was a movie about people staring at each other and making the heads blow up. might be scanners.

Razzle-D

You can guarantee they did. What else are they going to do with their time?

Spiff

Waste other people's?

They certainly know how to waste money.

Flying_Duck

stepping up on soap box

Spiff, I have a lot of respect for you, but I do take issue with this glip ignorant statement. No idiot would talk about FBI exploding her head etc. etc. in an airline cabin unless being severely mentally ill. As a matter of fact, I suspect that this person was/is schizophrenic. How would I know? - well, I am the father to a schizophrenic son.

More schitzophrenicsare harmless to others than others are to each other - however, because of the natiure of the disease, sensory overload associated with travel can lead to a "break" even if well medicated leading to statements that freeks people who do not know about mental illness out.

While my son is high functining and well medicated, I would currently never let him fly alone because of the ignorance by law enforcement and of fellow paxes which would endanger his life if he said "something crazy" if feeling overloaded and pressured. Here in SLC we already have a case of in-air murder of a mentally ill young man.

The ignorance regarding severe mental illness in this country in general and amongst the flying populace and law-enforcement in particular is apalling making us caring for such individuals extremely apprehensive when traveling with such family members as, as we saw in this case, outbursts may still result in knee-jerk overreactions and assumptions by otherwise clever people that the person at "best" is an idiot!!

I'll bet you that this woman is going to end up in jail where she will not get her medication and either be released psychotic and end up under a bridge or in the coronors office after a suicide or murder (significantly more likely than the other way around) or being kept in jail like the majority of the United States severaly mentally ill persons.

stepping off soap box

Thank you for your attention

miles addict

Good post, Flying_Duck. Especially the part about the mentally ill being jailed instead of receiving proper medical care. Our jails are indeed overcrowed with folks who ought not to be there.

Spiff

Flying_Duck,

Thank you for correcting me. I obviously ignored the fact that this woman is mentally ill and I apologize. I definitely did not intend to equate mental illness with idiocy.

I apologize for my thoughtless and insensitive statement.

NoStressHere

So, if someone makes a similar remark in a movie theatre, bus, train, subway, court of law, school, grocery store, Walmart etc, why do we not take similar action.

We have gone airplane crazy. What a waste.

MastaHanky

Was she sure it wasn't Delta trying to poison her with another corn-infested meal?

RCC

jerks like this ruin travel for all of us. we have enough security to deal with since 9/11, last we need is a situation like this....think of all the missed connections, the people waiting at the airport for their friends/colleagues/relatives etc....how much did it cost delta (which they really cant afford)...people like this dont deserve to every fly again.

Cholula

Class answer as usual from Spiff. He's a prolific and knowledgeable poster in the Travel Safety/Security Forum. While tough and to the point, Spiff is always tolerant of his fellow posters.
For a while I lost track of what Forum I was monitoring tonight.....

JS

So, if you're mentally ill, you can make all kinds of outrageous statements on an airplane and delay everyone else for hours, and we're supposed to just take it sitting down?



If you can't be civil, regardless of the underlying cause, stay home!