Posted on 03/21/2005 6:52:43 PM PST by bellevuesbest
NEW YORK (AP) -- Prosecutors are investigating the death of a man who was subdued by several fellow airline passengers after he became disruptive on a New York-bound flight, a spokesman said Sunday. William Lee was pronounced dead late Friday after he was removed from the American Airlines flight at Kennedy International Airport. The cause of death had not yet been determined and was under investigation. Lee, 48, of New York, stood up in his seat on American's Flight 4 from Los Angeles and "loudly demanded another beer," airline spokesman Tim Smith said. Flight attendants asked him to wait until they reached his row, Smith said, but the man "got very, very belligerent and loud and disruptive and was told he would not be served any more alcohol." The purser tried to calm him down, but he pushed her aside to get to the aisle, the spokesman said. Seven other male passengers restrained Lee, who was a large man, and they and the flight crew put flexible handcuffs on him and put him back in his seat, Smith said. Lee got out of his seat again and the seven passengers held him on his back on the galley floor until the plane landed, Smith said. He said he had heard reports the men were members of a rugby team but said he couldn't yet confirm that. After the landing, Port Authority police boarded the plane and administered CPR to Lee, who "was in some kind of distress," Smith said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Post-9/11 there isn't any sympathy for clymers who misbehave on airplanes. If someone is dumb enough to prosecute the passengers involved, there will be a hung jury or not guilty verdicts.
He was obese, drunk and throwing himself around. Somewhere amid that is the cause of death.
CSI did a show on this. A flight inbound to Las Vegas had an unruly passenger that was killed by co-passengers.
"I guess the moral is don't get drunk and piss off members of a rugby team"
Exactly, mate. Those ruggers were jonesin' for their brew, also. Wait yer turn.
Yup, I was jsut thinking of the same thing.
The guy in the show had some pressure on his brain, made him sweaty, anxious, irritable.
The passengers got freaked and pounded him to death.
Although this might be more cut and dry than the CSI one.
If you followed the similar path, it could be that yes he was disruptive, but did the drinking mixed with subduing (lack of oxygen plus and oxygen depriving drug...)
He died of alcohol poisoning.
Any takers?
| Death of Disruptive Air Passenger is Probed ^ |
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| Posted by Fizzie On News/Activism ^ 03/21/2005 7:20:07 PM EST · 23 replies · 1,346+ views Los Angeles Times ^ | March 21, 2005 | Times Wire Service Death of Disruptive Air Passenger Is Probed From Times Wire Services Prosecutors are investigating the death of a man who was subdued by several fellow airline passengers after he became disruptive on a New York-bound flight from Los Angeles, a spokesman for American Airlines said. William Lee, 48, was pronounced dead late Friday after he was removed from American Flight 4 at Kennedy International Airport. |
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At least the Port Authority Police didn't have to retrace the plane's route to recover the body.
Said they placed him on his back in the aisle...I'm thinking he might have vomited.
I thought I had seen this somewhere before!!
Life imitating TV.
http://www.salon.com/travel/diary/hest/1999/04/13/passenger/print.html
A few years ago on a United Airlines flight from Buenos Aires to New York, Gerard B. Finneran, an investment banker, went totally bonkers. Newspaper accounts said that after becoming intoxicated, Finneran demanded more alcohol from the flight attendants. When they refused, he began helping himself to the liquor supply. After being cut off a second time, he became visibly angry. He pushed one flight attendant (federal offense No. 1), verbally threatened another (federal offense No. 2), interfered with a third who was assisting a sick passenger (federal offense No. 3), then walked up to the first-class cabin, dropped his pants and defecated on a service cart in plain view of the passengers and crew. Then he stepped in his own feces and tracked it through the main cabin (federal offense Nos. 4, 5 and possibly 6).Finneran was arrested upon landing in New York. He subsequently pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to two years probation. In addition, he was given 300 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine and was ordered to pay more than $50,000 in restitution to the airline and to reimburse fellow passengers for the price of their tickets. (Not surprisingly, Finneran's lawyer said his client was "ill" when he committed the now infamous in-flight atrocity.)
So suffocation?
Don't piss-off... or piss on.... a rugby team.
- Seated side-by-side on a 14-hour overseas flight, two business-class passengers became romantically involved. At some point they began kissing and fondling each other while sitting in their seats. The passion became so intense that the couple began having sexual intercourse in their seats. Bewildered passengers immediately began ringing their flight attendant call buttons. Despite the flight attendants' urgent pleas, the couple refused to terminate their airborne lovemaking. Ultimately, the captain had to intervene. It was necessary for him to physically separate the lovers to get them to stop.
- While a female flight attendant was serving food from the meal cart, a female passenger thrust a small bundle of trash toward her. "Take this," the passenger demanded. Realizing that the trash was actually a used baby diaper, the attendant instructed the passenger to take it to the lavatory herself and dispose of it. "No," the passenger replied. "You take it!" The attendant explained that she couldn't dispose of the dirty diaper because she was serving food -- handling the diaper would be unsanitary. But that wasn't a good enough answer for the passenger. Angered by her refusal, the passenger hurled the diaper at the flight attendant. It struck her square in the head, depositing chunks of baby dung that clung to her blond locks. The infuriated attendant leapt upon the passenger, strangling her until passengers could separate the two.
- During a full flight between New York and London, a passenger noticed that the sleeping man in the window seat looked a bit pale. Sensing that something was wrong yet not wanting to wake him, the concerned passenger alerted flight attendants, who soon determined that the sleeping man was actually dead. Apparently, he had died a few hours earlier because his body was completely cold. Horrified by the prospect of sitting next to a dead man, the passenger demanded another seat. But the flight was completely full; every single seat was occupied. Finally one flight attendant had an inspiration. She approached a uniformed military officer, and he agreed to sit next to the dead man for the duration of the flight.
- Passengers on a flight from Miami to San Juan, Puerto Rico, were stunned by the actions of one deranged passenger. He walked to the rear of the plane, then charged up the aisle, slapping passengers' heads along the way. Next he kicked a pregnant flight attendant, who immediately fell to the ground. As if that weren't enough, he then bit a young boy on the arm. At this point the man was restrained and handcuffed by crew members. He was arrested upon arrival.
- When bad weather closed the Dallas/Fort Worth airport for several hours, departing planes were stuck on the ground for the duration. One frustrated passenger, a young woman, walked up to a female flight attendant and said, "I'm sorry, but I have to do this." The passenger then punched the flight attendant in the face, breaking her nose.
- A flight attendant returning to work after a double-mastectomy and a struggle with multiple sclerosis had a run-in with a disgruntled passenger. One of the last to board the plane, the passenger became enraged when there was no room in the overhead bin above his seat. He snatched the bags from the compartment and threw them on the floor, then put his own bag in the empty bin. After hearing angry cries from passengers, the flight attendant appeared from the galley to see what the fuss was all about. When the passengers explained what happened, she turned to the offending passenger. "Sir, you can't do that," she said. The passenger then rose from his seat and broke her jaw with one punch.
- For some reason, a drunken passenger began throwing peanuts at a well-built man across the aisle. The man was sitting with his wife, minding his own business. When the first peanut hit him in the face, he ignored it. After the second peanut struck him, he looked up to see who had thrown it. He threw a harsh look at the perpetrator, expecting him to cease immediately. When a third peanut hit him in the eye, he'd had enough. "Do that again," he warned, "and I'll punch your lights out." But the peanut-tossing passenger couldn't resist. He did it one last time. The victim got out of his seat, then triple-punched the assailant so hard that witnesses heard his jaw break. The plane was diverted to the closest airport and the peanut-tosser was kicked off.
I remember this and wish you hadn't brought it up again.
A thousand monkeys at keyboards typing for a hundred years couldn't make this kind of stuff up.
Personally, I think it's OK when A-holes drop dead.
Actually the TV version of CSI was based on a real story of a few years ago (pre 9/11) (I'm too lazy to google it right now). The guy who died did have a condition which caused him to basically lose his mind, he became physical with everybody and then tried to open the outer door. At that point, EVERYBODY panicked and jumped on him and he died. In real life as in the TV episode, the DA did not prosecute, knowing he would never get a jury to convict.
awwwwww...poor IGNORANT drunk.....booo hooooo...hope I dont cry in my beer
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