Privacy Maven

It is still a mystery how and why airline passenger, Carol Anne Gotbaum died in custody:

In the aftermath of Carol Anne Gotbaum’s death in police custody at the airport here, her family has hired a high-powered Phoenix lawyer who has gone after police wrongdoing in the past, a nationally renowned forensic pathologist and a former journalist turned private investigator, all of whom are helping in an attack on the official police account of the events leading to the death of a woman who married into the powerful New York family.

Yesterday as Mrs. Gotbaum’s husband, Noah, came here to collect his wife’s body from a mortuary, the family’s attorney, Michael C. Manning, stayed on the attack, contradicting pivotal points in the police’s version of last Friday’s incident, including new details about an account by a witness who he says claimed that Mrs. Gotbaum may have been unconscious before she even got to a police holding area.

“She was listless, unconscious to nearly unconscious,” Mr. Manning said, recalling what he was told by an airline employee whose name he was still withholding but planned to eventually release to the police. Once the employee is ready to be identified, Manning said: “I want Phoenix police to interview this witness. This is important.”

Today, the surveillance video showing her arrest was released:

Police said in a Wednesday statement they did attempt to calm an irate Gotbaum before arresting her. And they said they had no idea of her “personal issues,” including that she was on her way to check into an alcohol treatment center.

Police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill told reporters Thursday there were indications that alcohol may have played a role in the incident, although toxicology tests administered during the autopsy would determine that. Results of such tests typically take several weeks.

Gotbaum, who was flying through Phoenix on her way to Tucson, became angry when she was denied access to her flight and argued with a gate attendant, police said.

The surveillance video is the silent witness of her struggle.



Annie Jacobson, author of Terror in the Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again, writes about the stress that passengers feel when traveling due to increased airport security and speculates as to whether it could have been a contributing factor in Gotbaum’s tragic death:

So, how did Gotbaum die? Since there’s no toxicology report yet, it’s too early to say. But while readers all over the web, and specifically at USAToday.com, speculate that Gotbaum was killed by an aggressive airport police force indicative of America-the-police-state, I’d argue that the results of a recent experiment conducted at Heathrow Airport is a more practical place to begin.

Last July, neuropsychologist Dr. David Lewis monitored passengers’ heart rates as they went through airport check-in and security procedures at England’s busiest airport. Dr. Lewis concluded that some passengers experienced such intense stress levels—before they got on the plane—that their heart rates exceed levels “recorded by Formula 1 drivers, free-fall parachutists, and victims of knife-point muggings.”

Dr. Lewis’ conclusion? Airport passengers are under so much psychological stress as they anticipate flying, they could be at risk of death. “The conditions at Heathrow Airport and the stress levels that passengers are routinely subject to poses a very grave danger to the health of travelers at the airport,” Lewis said. The doctor also monitored passengers as they flew from Amsterdam to London and discovered that fliers’ heart rates and blood pressure exceeded those of “riot policemen confronting a stone throwing mob.”