Mycroft
High Priest of Ed
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But there was strong reason to believe he was.
Passenger killed by air marshall
- Thread starter Jas
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- air marshal passenger
But there was strong reason to believe he was.
I think this is a good opportunity to learn so hopefully this situation does not happen again. Anyone who is bipolar, unusually anxious, etc. and therefore prone to exercising out of control or very unexpected behavior should let one of the airline company's employees know in advance. Good times to bring this up is when:
I'm extremely hard of hearing and I've have learned from other hard of hearing and deaf people's experiences that there are certain situations that demand letting the other people around you know that immediately.
For example when I'm flying or the rare occasion when I'm being pulled over by the police.
This may sound trivial, but there have been tragic situations where hard-of-hearing and deaf people have been shot by police due to miscommunications.
Instead of pointing fingers I think its best to figure out where and when tragic miscommunications can occur and learn how to prevent that from happening.
- booking the flight
- getting the boarding pass
- shortly after being seated
I'm extremely hard of hearing and I've have learned from other hard of hearing and deaf people's experiences that there are certain situations that demand letting the other people around you know that immediately.
For example when I'm flying or the rare occasion when I'm being pulled over by the police.
This may sound trivial, but there have been tragic situations where hard-of-hearing and deaf people have been shot by police due to miscommunications.
Instead of pointing fingers I think its best to figure out where and when tragic miscommunications can occur and learn how to prevent that from happening.
Perforatu
Thinker
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Was there? If the guy was really going around claiming he had a bomb, I fully agree. If not, and he was just in a state of panic as a result of his disorder, I don't think there's any reason to assess him as a threat.
Regardless, there was no reason to believe this man was going to be a danger to others before he boarded the plane. So how do you propose excluding people with potentially dangerous mental disorders from air travel? It's kinda difficult to predict beforehand if a person's disorder might act up during flight - especially if he or she hasn't been properly diagnosed yet, or is a first time flyer.
Post hoc, there is no reason to assess him as a threat.
At the time there was every reason to treat him as a threat.
How we comfortably view things days later is really irrelevant to the problem viewed at the moment.
Perforatu
Thinker
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Again, I tend to agree that the sky marshall made the right assessment, but only if the man did indeed say he was in possession of a bomb. If not, I'd feel the sky marshall made the wrong assessment.
Even if that were the case though, I'm still not saying the sky marshall was irresponsible or trigger happy - but perhaps he was inexperienced with regards to dealing with people suffering from mental disorders. It's not something he should face charges over, but I do hope steps will be taken to prevent other sky marshalls from inadvertently doing something similar in the future.
Which brings me back to what Wildcat was suggesting earlier: rather than concluding from all this that people with mental disorders shouldn't fly if they don't want to get shot for 'acting funny', I'd rather go with Shera's suggestions, outlined above.
But Shera's suggestions rely on the person, or an associate of theirs, voluntarily notifying the airline. If that isn't done, then what?
Well, for the common good, a persons complete medical history along with attending physicion verbatums, could be coded on our personal identity cards. That way all would be well and the children would be safe and we could protect democracy all at once.
Anything that might cause alarm about a persons behavior could appear on a crawl on an LCD display located on each bulkhead along with the persons seat assignment and even a live video feed of him.
Then we would never be in the terrible position of maybe making a mistake.
I would fly first class, if it meant paying a few hundred or several hundred more. It usually costs $400 to $500 when I fly cross-country. If 1st class was $700 or $800, I'd pay it. But it isn't. It jumps to up over $2000!!! That's ridiculous. I don't fly enough to earn enough flyer miles to upgrade.If you had 14 inches you couldn't cram into a coach seat.
Ahem, I fly first class
errr....joke, 14", can't fit, fly first.....see?
That WAS funny! Grammatron
Philosopher
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And that means DoI is part of US law why?
Kevin_Lowe
Unregistered
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The luxury of knowing that mentally ill people exist should have been enough.
Under the circumstances in question a visible weapon or a visible bomb would have been a credible threat. Given that the man was coming off an aeroplane, confused ramblings about a bomb (assuming he said any such thing which has not at all been established) and possession of a bag do not alone make a credible case that a bomb exists.
So if you were in the role of some sort of police officer, you always operate under the assumption that there is no risk, until proven otherwise?
QUICK! What am I reaching behind my back for?
Too late. You're dead. I drew and shot you while you were having a little mental debate about whether or not to take the risk seriously. At least you'll have a nice funeral, being a (dead) policeman.
I'm glad I don't rely on people like you for fighting crime.
a_unique_person
Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning
The only assertions he that said he had a bomb have been from the authorities, not from any eye witnesses. As I said, maybe these guys need hearing tests so they can tell the difference between the words 'bomb' and 'off'.
I haven't seen any news stories yet that have stated conclusively that all present witnesses state he did not say "bomb". I have just found stories that say SOME of the witnesses claim that he did not say "bomb". I also have not found any that say some witnesses did hear him say "bomb".
In other words...I'm still waiting to get more info before I decide whether or not he said "bomb". But as others have pointed out, whether or not he said "bomb" might be irrelevant, depending on his other behavior.
