Bogdana Georgieva Must Remain In SLC

As Aero-News previously reported, college mathematics professor Bogdana Atanasova Georgieva was arrested after a strange disruption on United Express/Skywest Flight 6664 from Eugene, Oregon to Denver on January 11, 2005. This week, Magistrate Judge David Nuffer (www.utd.uscourts.gov/judges/nuffer.html)  of the US District Court in SLC ordered that she remain in the Salt Lake City area while the case is pending.

Among other things, she assaulted another passenger and aircrew members (yanking out hair and an earring from one unlucky flight attendant), ranted about having a baby named Jesus, and shouted that George Bush was behind it all (gee, wasn't that what got camera-hound Cindy Sheehan tossed out of the State of the Union address, this
week?) But it was the magic word "bomb" that guaranteed the diversion.

The regional jet made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City, where Georgieva was taken into custody, and then to a hospital for physical and mental evaluation. The FBI and local police searched the airplane for a bomb, and when none was found, the remaining passengers were able to reboard and continue to Denver.

But it seems that, while family members, like the uncle she was living with in Oregon, have blamed job stress for an outburst they say is atypical of Georgieva, it may be that there is a medical explanation for her irrational behavior. She is under outpatient treatment by a Salt Lake City hospital -- but by its neurological, not psychological, department.

Georgieva was traveling to San Antonio to a mathematics conference, hoping to line up a new job. She had been let go by Pacific University, where she had been a tenure-track assistant professor, for reasons the college will not state.

Aeromedical experts have theorized that the relatively low partial pressure (or high equivalent altitude) in an airline cabin, which may be as high as 8,500 feet, may trigger several physical problems that present as "air rage." It's well documented that alcohol consumption, drug use, smoking, and altitude can combine in insidious ways to cloud judgment and degrade reasoning. There is no information available about whether Georgieva was subject to any of those other risk factors. It is also unknown whether she had pre-existing mental health problems, as the man shot by Air Marshals in December apparently did.

Whether her problem is organic, psychological or attitudinal in origin, she's not going to be cashing in any United Express frequent flyer miles from that trip soon. If found guilty of the charge of interfering with a flight crew member, Georgieva's employment problems are over too; for anything up to twenty years she'll be working for Unicor, Federal Prison Industries. If found not guilty for medical reasons, one can imagine a long course of treatment before anyone turns her loose on an airplane again.

FMI: www.usdoj.gov (note that the US Attorney for the District of Utah is one of a dozen or so federal prosecutors who does not have a web presence.. maybe he's Amish?)