Here’s everything that’s wrong with American society in a single arc at an airport.
A man’s family is suing after his death last New Year’s Day at the Salt Lake City airport where he crawled into the engine of an aircraft. They want $300,000.
The suit argues that the airport’s design, monitoring, and response failed in several ways.
- staff allegedly didn’t intervene as he deteriorated
- an emergency exit near Gate A4 and an exterior door lacked additional safeguards that could have slowed and alerted his escape onto the airfield
- responders were sent on a “wild goose chase” due to miscommunications about where he exited
- the city allegedly failed to alert air traffic control and pilots quickly enough about a person in the area before he reached a taxiing Delta Airbus A220-100.
The man entered the Utah Jazz store near Gate A31, where a manager reported erratic behavior and sold him a jersey at steep discount to move him along. He returned to the store shoeless, shirt half unzipped, yelling about the bag and demanded a refund. He left before the refund on his jersey was complete, because the manager was calling in an emergency.
He went walking the moving walkways repeatedly, against the flow of passengers, and laid down on the walkway handrail. Then he tried opening doors to jet bridges. He eventually exited near Gate A4. It took 8 minutes for police to get his correct exit location.
During that time, he made it onto the runway, and removed his pants and underwear. It was below freezing outside, and he left on his jersey and socks. He reached the deicing area near Runway 34L, and ran toward an Airbus A220-100 that had begun taxiing.
The pilot stopped their engines upon seeing him. He climed into the engine cowling while the engine was still running. He was pulled out, lifesaving efforts began but were unsuccessful.
The lawsuit happened now because the Utah Governmental Immunity Act requires suits to be filed within a year, even though Utah Code § 78B-2-304 otherwise provides two years for wrongful death claims.
- The duty to intervene argument is pretty weak here. Airport security and retail employments aren’t mental health clinicians.
- Even if a jury wants to say the airport should have had better door monitoring, a passenger running onto the apron and entering an aircraft engine are the cause of the tragedy and supersede any negligent failure in monitoring breaches.
- They’re arguing that the pilot should have been notified more quickly by air traffic control (though it happened in a matter of minutes) but the family is suing the city which exercises no control over ATC.
Do we really need to tell someone they shouldn’t go through an emergency exit onto the airfield, strp naked, and crawl into an aricraft engine? And are we really saying it’s someone else’s fault when there are consequences for doing so?
It’s like the instructions that say not to iron clothes while wearing them.
In 1984 a California man was tossing his toddler up and down in his living room. The kid loved it, and the father went higher and higher. Until the kid’s head hit the ceiling fan. Which was on. And the man sued the ceiling fan manufacturer for failing to warn him that this might be dangerous. This wasn’t the only man to sue over failure to warn after a ceiling fan injury.
So I can almost understand warnings like “this motorcycle contains no edible parts” and cartons of eggs that warn “this product may contain eggs” (or jars of peanut butter that flag, “may contain nuts or nut products”).
I have to think though that bureaucrats who insist that butane lighters warn “flame may cause fire” or people who need to be told “this electric drill is not intended for dental use” tell us that something is wrong with our society. Shouldn’t we really have some individual responsibility?
Then again, when a U.S. Senator, former Governor and candidate for President of the United States actually does iron his shirts while wearing them what chance to the rest of us have?
The narrative arc of societal decline will be complete when the city settles and taxpayers are forced to pony up.
(HT: Joe R)
This is little different from the continued demands that AI foundation models be “safeguarded” against not yet anticipated “misuse”. I suppose some idiot will figure out how to open an aircraft door mid-flight be swept away and his “survivors” will sue the airline for gross negligence –“there was no announcement about NOT opening the door while flying.”
Until people filing these types of lawsuits are held financially accountable then this stupidity won’t stop.
Hopefully a judge will throw out of the courtroom whatever hungry attorney brought this suit. (And I’m saying that with a son who was a criminal defense attorney for 12 years and is now a judge.) People have a right to sue, but there isn’t much you can do in such a sad situation. A better question might be to ask why we don’t have affordable coverage available for everyone with a serious mental illness (and every other serious health condition too, for that matter). I have no idea what kind of help this person got, but obviously it wasn’t enough. Sorry for the family though; they are hurting, but demanding money doesn’t help things.
Gary, a great article.
One small thing, however. The former politician that you refer to did famously mention that he irons his own shirts, but never said that he does so while wearing them. I believe what you are referring to was a SNL parody of the incident
These skits, whole funny and well crafted, have been conflated into publics take of real world events (like Tina Fey’s parody of Sarah Palin now has people believing that she actually said that she “can see Russia” from her back yard.
The irony here is your comment , in a back handed manner has you confirming by your comments the growing propensity of mixing fact with fiction,then expecting society, or in the case your example, the courts, to sort this all out, usually at the expense of common sense.
And on top of it, he ruined a perfectly good engine. /s
Someone methed up.
Heard of compassion? Seems to me the subject was unbalanced and non compis mentis and so wasn’t acting, for reasons we’ll never know now, and, rationally. By your logic, a baby is respinsible for crawling over broken glass in a day care whose minders failed to dispose of, because said baby should know not to crawl over shards of glass on the floor. Typical Trump-voter reaction.
Fortunately, after purchasing a sports jersey from the Utah Jazz store near Gate A3, to celebrate New Year’s Day at the Salt Lake City airport, this passenger learned from reading popular passenger travel blogs that to avoid painful thermal burns, you should never iron your clothes like a new jersey while you are wearing them. Unfortunately, before his next flight, this passenger decided to exit the airport through an emergency exit and run across the tarmac before climbing into the wing-mounted engine of an occupied commercial aircraft at the SLC airport deicing pad. At around 10:10 a.m., first responders removed this passenger from the engine intake cowling. He was declared dead on the scene and missed his flight to Denver.
Binders full of women… LOL.
I hate when an event occurs caused by one person and the system enacts changes that effect all of us. Who knows what add’l security we’ll have to endure over this.
The family should be awarded lots of money unless the engine had a prominent label not to enter. Either that or tax the rich and use the money to pay them. Make billionaires pay. This is the type of feeling I see on Instagram.
It is the family fault for not committing him to a mental ward befor he left the house
What value does this person have when he was clearly crazy and should have been in a padded cell. He was not worth $300k.
He would have cost the give $5k monthly
@derek — How do those boots taste?
True story: there’s a surgical skin‑closure stapler called INSORB. Inside the sterile packaging—containing a device meant to close human flesh—there’s a tiny desiccant packet wedged between the arms. It is labeled, with great urgency, “Do not eat.”
Because nothing says “delicious snack” like a moisture‑absorbing chemical pouch tucked inside a surgical instrument.
Truly, the culinary temptation must be overwhelming.
@George Navarini – Minor note, but Palin did comment very specifically that one “can see Russia” from Alaska. I don’t think I saw the Tina Fey backyard version, but I did watch an interview where I could not believe the words coming out of her mouth (it was on ABC, perhaps?). She did literally say, when asked about her international experience, or lack thereof, as governor, that you “can see Russia” from her state, as if that had some relation to experience.
I’m not saying international relations is at all important, but if you’re going to use this example… I mean, technically, that’s not literally exactly what Palin said, but it’s so close it’s difficult to meaningfully distinguish.
This should be handled on a motion to dismiss and the plaintiff lawyers should be sanctioned. BS’ like this raises the costs for all of us.
Maybe Delta should sue the family for the damaged engine and the costs incurred by the delayed flight.
These (dumb) outcomes have a negative impact. There is plenty of researh that shows when people repeatably see nonsense Warnings and Cautions, it reduces the impact of real warnings as it basically conditions people to ignore the warning/caution.
I think it was the talc in his baby powder that caused the mental breakdown. I would sue J&J for $1.5B
But of course.
What do the plaintiffs mean by “additional safeguards that could have slowed and alerted his escape onto the airfield”? Things that, in case of fire, would trap people inside a burning building?
Keep in mind: In the 1940’s, nearly 500 people died in a fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston. The investigation found that some of the exit doors had been locked in a way that prevented egress.
The persons employed by various entities public and private have a duty to secure the runways from intruders. They breached that duty and the consequences being the intruders death due their failure to reasonably secure the field from him is basis for recovery.
The airline has a similar cause of action against the airport for the damage to their aircraft and the loss of revenue until the schedule could be restored.
@Derek McGillicuddy — Apparently, 8/10 commenters (here at least) are in that ‘camp.’ Oof.
Re: seeing Russia – Big Diomede Island (Russia) is 2.4 miles from Little Diomede Island (USA) and can be clearly seen, and even walked to when the water between them has frozen.
we need to stop this. Some nut above made it clear – so called “compassion” is destroying our society. We have too much empathy, and it leads directly to stupidity.
And this is why we all have to suffer under Trump, who I voted against, as normal people are sick of this bit where only the worst of us have rights.
Lets go back to judging by actions. It worked
So I moved to a country where everything is your own personal responsibility, and as a result the sidewalks are more dangerous and there are missing and broken guard rails everywhere, but the cost of living is cheaper. Works for me.
While I don’t believe the family should be getting $300,000, the fact of the matter is the airport should not be let off the hook completely, either. There absolutely does need to be some incentive for the airport to maintain proper security and not have people being able to easily just access the jet aprons and runways. First of all airport security has to be tight because of potential nefarious terrorist actors. Second of all, it has to be tight because the tarmac IS dangerous to passengers. A mentally ill person is almost no different from a small child. If the story had been an adorable 6 year old child playing hide and seek who easily got onto the tarmac and was killed (be it hiding in a jet engine or under a vehicle), I’m sure people’s gut reaction would be different.
If the airport can’t hire competent enough lawyers to get this case settled at a reasonable cost or dismissed then the airport absolutely deserves to shell out $300,000, because it just shows a pattern of management incompetency on its part. Otherwise, the cost of paying lawyers to handle this situation may be just enough of a an incentive for the airport to make sure it reviews and tightens it’s security processes.
The follow-up lawsuit will sue his drug dealer for not fully disclosing the possible negative consequences while trippin’ balls.
The lawsuit should be dismissed and re-filed as an application for a posthumous Darwin Award for the dead crazy/high/drunk guy: Survival of the fittest!
How about 300,000 Skypesos?
Sounds like the airline should sue the estate of the man who died for causing extensive damage to the airplane including loss of use.
That might stop these silly lawsuits
Some of the comments here sicken me more than the horrible opinion piece.
That young man lost his life, his family lost a loved one. As maybe 2 decent people pointed out, no matter the circumstances, whether he was enebriated or in the midst of a severe mental health episode is irrelevant. He never should have made it to the tarmac. End of story. Shame on you people.
While I’m not a Palin fan, she said:
“They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska”
Please folks, stop spreading BS. Check out snopes.
We will waste trillions until we have the guts to stand up and say no to this craziness. Idiotic lawsuits, publicly funded stadia for professional teams, weekly trips to Mara a Lago ( OK, small in comparison). Just dsy no.
Problem is identifying mentaly disturbed people, and even more so paying for their care. Society can’t grab individuals from the streets that e.g. talk to himself, as one psychiatrist aptly pu it. Impossible task.
It’s 2.4 km from Little Diomede Island to Big Diomede Island. Technically, it is indeed possible to see Russia from Alaska. If the weather is clear.
Derek & Brandon,
Seriously? While the airport is on a public plot, it’s very similar in some respects to a sidewalk on your street. If this deranged person played in the street, and was hit by a car while doing something incredibly ignorant – or even stupid – it would be a horrible accident.
Would the city be held liable for not having signage telling idiots to stay away from the street? NO, and therein lies the issue of liability. IN FACT, airports are required to maintain security according the FAA regulations – see Part 139, Certification of Airports, and find out for yourselves. Part of our reality is that NOTHING is foolproof, and fools will eventually find a way to do something unthinking or even foolish.
Losing a child to ANYTHING is always traumatic, but is it the “fault” of the airport that this person was too messed up to know it was improper, illegal, or otherwise an insane act to exit to the ramp, and then jump into a running engine?
If you believe fault existed, you’re just as demented as the individual who lost his life.
To be fair, the $300K is going to the funeral home, as the family wished to have an open casket. This is one of those “use all your powers, and all your skills” type of jobs.
There was no warning label on the ballot…
To those who are talking about affordable care: Doctors can’t treat mental health problems if the patient doesn’t want it. Compelled care does not work. And many patients view the cure as worse than the disease because they don’t realize how bad it was–and that’s if there is even a cure.
To the person who said they should be locked up: That is not viable, there are too many suicidal people. And you end up with the situation where people won’t seek help because of what gets imposed. We should only lock up those whose condition poses a danger to others–and we fare badly enough at locking up the ones that actually need it. We used to go way too far on locking up mental cases, lawsuits stopped that–but Reagan went way too far in the other direction, kicking them out onto the streets. Now we only lock them up when they do serious crimes, ignoring the warning signs when they engage in lesser acts of violence.
Warning signs: Looks an awful lot like a suicide. Would a warning sign really do any good? And we have gone overboard with warnings–distracting people from the things that need warnings. Aviation actually recognized this problem, aircraft don’t go Hollywood bonkers because of some small issue.