Fly the Friendly Skies

[wolf]

Jet Diverted after Man Hangs Himself in Bathroom

DENVER {Feb 9, 2006) — A Miami man apparently hanged himself in an airplane lavatory during a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, and the plane was diverted to Denver after his body was discovered, police said Thursday.

The Denver medical examiner's office identified the man as Gerald Georgettis, 56, and said his body was found on Wednesday. Medical examiner's spokeswoman Michelle Weiss-Samaras said an autopsy was planned.

Police detective Virginia Lopez said no other passengers were ever in danger.

"Right now, everything leads us to believe the male involved did commit suicide," she said.

United officials did not immediately return a call.

Last month, the El Paso County coroner ruled that a Sacramento, Calif., woman had committed suicide on an America West flight between Cleveland and Phoenix by overdosing on morphine. That flight made an unscheduled landing Jan. 6 in Colorado Springs after Stephanie Marson was found unconscious in her seat.

Dead passenger's name seem familar? Seems Mr. Georgettis has been having a bad week.

(CBS4) NORTH MIAMI {Feb 6, 2006} Gerald Georgettis is unemployed today, just two days after he drove his brand new SUV into the Metro Ford dealership, doused it and other cars with gasoline, and set them ablaze. He quit his job with the city of North Miami, and asked for speedy action with his severance pay, because he needed the money to hire a lawyer.

Georgettis, until Monday a performance art theatre manager for the City of Miami, has been charged with arson after he apparently snapped over a dispute on the price of his new SUV. He was released after posting bond Sunday.

Police say Georgettis believes he was scammed. “When he talks with the investigators, he told then that he was told one price for the vehicle, but when he got home and looked at the paperwork, it was something else,” said Miami-Dade detective Robert Williams. “it was considerably more.”

Witnesses watched Georgettis drive the SUV into the building and start the fire. Denise Cruz was in line at the body shop, and was standing near Georgettis when he lit the match. “And the next thing you heard was BOOM, and you saw flames all over the place,” said Cruz. “And I said to him, and I said sir, why would you want to do that?”

The fire quickly spread throughout the dealership, destroying cars, computers, and business paperwork. While the fire burned, Georgettis, now without a car, apparently calmly walked off down the street, where police officers found him a short time later. Officers claim Georgettis was yelling “Kill me, Kill me,” but officers took him into custody without incident.

At the dealership, 11 cars were destroyed including Georgettis new SUV. Also damaged, a limited edition baby-blue Ford GT, one of just 250 produced and a collectors item worth $150,000.

Sunday, Georgettis he was released from jail after paying just $1500 on a $15,000 bond. Monday, he saw his boss and resigned.
“The city has not had problems with him, he had no disciplinary actions registered against him, and everybody in the city is as surprised as everyone else about this incident,” said North Miami Beach City Manager Gary Brown.

Because there were people in the building, Georgettis is charged with first degree Arson, which carries the penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

Miami-Dade police say they regularly get calls to auto dealerships from people upset with their car purchase, and the Consumer Federation of America says auto dealer fraud tops it’s list of complaints.

Georgettis is not speaking with reporters, and neither is the car dealer whose business he destroyed. When asked by CBS4 Reporter Gary Nelson for a comment, an unidentified spokesman for the dealership said “I understand, there’s no have no comment right now. I’d appreciate it if you can respect that, we’re just trying to get our business back to normal, that’s all.”

Total damage to Metro Ford has been estimated at almost $1 million dollars.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Why was the flight diverted, didn't they have other bathrooms?
He was probably despondent because the dealers finance manager got away.

[wolf]

I just had this thought ... the bathroom hanging was the interesting part of the story for me and my coworkers. When stuff like the prior event happens, does that become hot conversation at car dealerships?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I was talking to a guy that had a year old pickup and the dealer he bought it from talked him into trading it in on a new one. The new one was an upgrade in model plus a ton of options he didn't have before.
He loved the new truck but when he got home from the razzle dazzle of the dealership with all those shiny bits, he read over the paperwork and found out he paid twice what he thought he was to upgrade.
He was quite bitter.
My guess is, because he knew he'd been outsmarted. Sometimes people get more upset by that than if they had been outright cheated or robbed.

[lumberjim]

confusing math, poorly explained is most likely to blame. when a trade is in negative equity, you have to increase the trade allowance to cover it, so you don;t have negative numbers on the paperwork. therefore, you must also increase the sale price by the same amount to keep the numbers balanced. the bottom line is the same, but when you look at it later, it can be alarming.

understand?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I believe in this case, his payments went up as he expected but later discovered they also added three years. It's quite possible they mentioned it, but he clearly didn't read, or comprehend, before he signed.

I've had the experience of gettting to the signing and the paperwork didn't match the conversation, but that's always the possibility of misunderstanding on my part as much as misleading on their part.
I walked out and went elsewhere one time, when I was certain they lied, but usually I let it go and just decide whether the deal that's on the paper is acceptable or not.
Gotta stop daydreaming about cruising with a new car full of hot babes and read the paperwork.

[Elspode]

I'm not real sure I'll ever buy a new car again. It seems like one pays a staggeringly large premium for the most rapidly depriciating consumer item on the planet just to drive new. I think I'm getting a lot more of my money's worth on the used cars I'm driving (and no, I'm not counting the free one, thanks). There are maintenance issues without warranty coverage, to be sure, but then I still have thousands and thousands of dollars in my pocket that I'm not paying out to the dealership and the finance criminals...um...companies.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I did the new car every year or two which was costly.
Then the new car and run it till it drops......less costly.
When money got tight (bought a house), for a very long time I’d buy under $1k cars and put the money and time they needed to keep they as reliable as possible.
I saved a ton of money but I did all the work, had good parts connections, always had at least two cars on the road just in case, spent a fair amount on tools and manuals and missed out on a lot of stuff because I had car work to do.
In many instances it was rewarding and even fun.
Now I’m back to buy new and run them till they drop.

[Elspode]

Yeah, I was probably being at least a little disingenuous in my prior statement. If money was not a concern, you bet your ass that I would be throwing money left and right on cars. Really exotic, unreasonably expensive, "I've got a little dick, but hey, look at this Lambourghini" type cars.

I like cars, I just don't have car money, and with good cars costing what houses used to cost when I first got married, I'm driving used.

[SteveDallas]

Not to be morbid, but I'm trying to figure out how did he hang himself? Granted the thought has never occurred to me while I was actually on an airliner, but it doesn't seem like you'd have room to get the job done in one of those little closet restrooms.

[limey]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Not to be morbid, but I'm trying to figure out how did he hang himself? Granted the thought has never occurred to me while I was actually on an airliner, but it doesn't seem like you'd have room to get the job done in one of those little closet restrooms.

That was my first thought, too. Maybe he was very short?

[barefoot serpent]

maybe he flushed his tie down the loo?

Hell, what was the dude doing on a plane, anyhow? Generally a person out on bond is not supposed to leave the state, I don't think. I suppose he didn't care if he knew he was going to kill himself, anyway. I wonder if he just hopped on the first plane available or did he pick a flight going to a place where he wanted to be buried?

I guess if I had an endless supply of money, I'd buy a new car. As it stands, I buy my cars used for cash and find a good mechanic who is a cute and willing to flirt a little in exchange for discounted car repairs.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Not to be morbid, but I'm trying to figure out how did he hang himself? Granted the thought has never occurred to me while I was actually on an airliner, but it doesn't seem like you'd have room to get the job done in one of those little closet restrooms.

Hanging your self is not about space, its about having a sufficiently sturdy hook. You don't even need a drop of any kind. Just let your neck take the weight and you'll strangle once you restrict the airway enough. Cut off the carotids for only a couple minutes and you lose consciousness from lack of blood/oxygen to the brain.

We had a near-successful hanging in our bathroom which is designed for lack of ease in killing one's self as you might imagine.

He tied a knot in the leg of his pants and placed it in between the top of the door and the jamb. He then tied the other leg into a loop, placed it around his neck and just let his weight do the rest. If another guy in the lobby hadn't wanted to take a leak, he would have been dead.

Airplane bathroom has got to be a ton easier, despite the limited space to work with, since even though the screeners take away your oh-so-dangerous nail clippers, they usually let you have your belt, tie, and other usable articles of clothing.

I've seen successful and near successful hangings with underwear and other articles of clothing, towels, bedsheets, shoelaces, drawstrings, and gauze cling that had been used to wrap a person's wrists following an attempt with razor blades. Pantyhose are one of the worst because it's damn difficult to loosen the knot. You have to cut those, which can be tricky if the person is still conscious (or regains consciousness partway through the rescue), since they pull tight enough that it's hard to get the blade between the noose and the neck.

Rope and extension cords are your best choices, but I usually end up with the improvisers, either from jail cells or our own unit.

[tw]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Hell, what was the dude doing on a plane, anyhow? Generally a person out on bond is not supposed to leave the state, I don't think. I suppose he didn't care if he knew he was going to kill himself, anyway. I wonder if he just hopped on the first plane available or did he pick a flight going to a place where he wanted to be buried?

Maybe he forgot words to the expression "Allah Akbar". Therefore he had no purpose to his suicide - and take everyone else with him.