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?)