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Confusion and delays at Orlando airport after TSA agent falls to his death
An off-duty Transportation Security Administration officer fell to his death Saturday from a hotel balcony inside Florida's Orlando International Airport, officials said, sending confused travelers scattering past security checkpoints unscreened and causing flight delays.
There were varying descriptions about what happened. Orlando police said a man in his 40s jumped, in an apparent suicide, from the Hyatt Regency Hotel onto an atrium floor in the main terminal at about 9:30 a.m. ET.
TSA spokeswoman Jenny Burke identified the man as an off-duty TSA officer, and said he fell from one of the multilevel hotel's balconies, which overlooks an area where people line up for one of the airport's security checkpoints.
[...] Trista Eaden told Spectrum News 13, a CNN affiliate, that she was waiting in line for screening when she heard a loud bang. "Then I saw the TSA agents standing up, and all of a sudden they just told us to run, to just go through the screening," Eaden said. The TSA said that several passengers scattered past the security areas without screening. All passengers at gates 70 to 129 had to be rescreened, the airport said.
Also at the Orlando Sentinel.
(Score: 3, Troll) by Gaaark on Sunday February 03 2019, @03:10AM (2 children)
Just meh.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 03 2019, @03:45AM
He fell, that's so true. I wouldn't call him lucky. And I wouldn't call that luck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @04:42AM
Not just meh. That headline is causing even more confusion at Soylent.
I even forgot who I am...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @03:23AM (22 children)
There's really only two very simple parts to suicide counseling; often just a special kind of listening called Active Listening is all I required to bring lots of people back from the edge:
Ask leading questions on any topic at all so as to get them started talking. Listen with rapt attention then respond in such a way as to make transparently obvious that you really heard as well as took to heart what they just said.
ProTip: Don't play Eliza anymore.
Focus on their experience. If you get the sense they are in danger, come right out and ask them _directly_: "Are you feeling suicidal?" If they are, not to have to hide it anymore will be quite a lot of relief.
Ask them whether they have a plan then determine whether the means to carry out that plan as well as whether the plan would actually work were they to try it.
If all three are a go, it is of utmost importance to spend enough time with them that they are no longer suicidal. If their ideation persists, offer to accompany them to a hospital emergency room.
If that's not possible, call your Emergency Number - it's not 9-1-1 in much of the world - then request a "Welfare Check".
Quite a serious problem in the US is that Welfare Checks are always done by cops, but honestly if they won't let go of their desire to take their own lives, and they won't go to the ER, here in the US I don't know of any other options.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:15AM (5 children)
The Jews did it. The guy was found dead from suicide with 3 bullets to the brain. Then he jumped off a balcony for no reason at all. The suicide stinks of Hillary.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:28AM (4 children)
Seriously, what the hell is the matter with you?
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday February 03 2019, @04:32PM (1 child)
Pretty sure that was a parody of the active listening cliche advice. As in, here's the usual raving lunatic Ethanol spewing his usual racist nonsense but with a hint of self-deprecation as he breaks internal logic and consistency suggesting a deliberate cry for help but no one is asking him to keep talking and pour his heart out and counsel him.
Or it could be an actual cry for help... But the crux of the problem remains since much like the TSA agent, most won't mind them taking a plunge off a tall building.
Personally, I'm guessing it's the former. But just to be sure... No please Ethanol don't stop tell us how you really feel.
*runs away with hands covering ears while laughing*
compiling...
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday February 04 2019, @02:12AM
Active Listening is a complex topic. On the one hand it's better than getting no help at all, which is the case for mental health issues in many countries (I live in a country with free healthcare, we're lucky). OTOH it's typically done by volunteers who have only basic training in the technique, and no training at all in the emotional stress that it causes the listener. Psychologists have years of training, support, and supervisors to deal with this, and even then often can't cope (use of medication and even suicides are scarily prevalent). Active Listeners have none of this, and it's typically not made clear to them how much at risk they're putting themselves when they provide the service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @10:07PM (1 child)
Please don't ask that. He might provide us with a list.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @10:13PM
There's a book for that [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:57AM (10 children)
Something else about this. I have never liked this edge-of-a-cliff, sheer vertical wall building style that's everywhere. It's too attractive to those feeling suicidal. You're feeling very down about something, maybe an important test you just failed, a romantic relationship that ended with you getting dumped, your secret store of cash found and stolen, a job you were just fired from in what could well be a career ender, and here's this handy 5 story drop guarded by nothing but a low rail. Too low. Don't even have to climb over, just topple over will do it. I've seen way too many stairwells with an open center. And yeah, I've seen that kind of hotel design with the 6 story or more atrium. And how about the meme of the finance guy who just lost his fortune on Wall Street, climbing out of the window of his office high up a high rise building? If our buildings were stepped pyramids, it's be a whole lot harder to fall to your death from them.
The problems go beyond making it too easy to act on an impulse to commit suicide. In college, I lived in a 12 story dormitory, and learned to keep an eye open for falling objects. People would just drop beer bottles and other trash out their windows. It was so bad, I quit using the walkway along the side of the building, and always entered at the end.
My roommate, nicknamed Rico because he was in the ROTC, was one of the guilty parties. The day I arrived for the start of the fall semester, he was already there and eating a pizza. While I unpacked, he casually opened the window, which was hinged at the bottom, put the empty pizza box on it like it was a package going into a mailbox, and closed the window. I protested, and he told me not to worry about it. Too lazy to walk just one room over to the trash chute. What happened next was hilarious. 10 minutes later, someone hammered on our door. It was one of the RAs, the one RA in the building who happened to be a higher ranking member in the ROTC. He barked, "Rico, is this your pizza box?!?" Rico tried to deny it. Then the RA said, "it has your name and address on it", pointing to the label my roommate had obviously not considered. Ah, college stupidities, LOL. For a week he complained about all the pushups he had to do as punishment.
Some years ago, someone was killed by a beer bottle, and schools across the nation clamped down on the problem. They sealed all the windows. A stepped pyramid design could have helped greatly with that problem too.
A while ago I read an article about high bridges being so attractive to the suicidal that authorities have had to take steps. Too many people have jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge. I have heard it has netting now, to foil suicidal jumpers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by cubancigar11 on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:59AM
Blame this ideology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_follows_function [wikipedia.org] . Before it got famous, people were building beautiful buildings, adding character into their living space. Now everything is a cube, probably with a mirror instead of a wall.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @10:20AM (1 child)
pyramids are not good to live in, because you can't ventilate and light most of the volume properly, unless you have technology later than 1950 (and even then it's expensive).
for most of our history we couldn't do anything but build 4-5 levels straight up.
otherwise: stop fucking up people's lives, and they won't kill themselves.
vertical building solves a lot of problems with average well-being, for instance the surface footprint of cities: every decrease in height of the buildings leads to increasing distances travelled by people every day, so more cars, more pollution, more wasted time, etc.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @11:09AM
The depression that results from having a fucked up life is called Reactive Depression. That kind responds well to Psychotherapy.
The depression that results from my own Bipolar-Type Schizoaffective Disorder is called Endogenous Depression. That kind occurs for no apparent reason; simply leading The Good Life won't prevent it, nor will continuing to live The Good Life stop that depression once one experiences.
Such depression is MY NUMBER ONE SYMPTOM. I've spent quite a lot of times dwelling over how to take my own life.
For Endogenous Depression, one requires medicine.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @11:05AM (3 children)
And I came very very close to jumping on July 2008.
When I realized my ex would soon follow, instead I hospitalized myself.
It happens that the bridge authority strenuously resisted the suicide barrier for decades, as it was concerned that might discourage tourism. Then one day a young many jumped; on his way down he realized _all_ of his many problems had solutions. All but one:
He had just jumped.
One of the very few to ever survive, he want one to advocate relentlessly for the suicide barrier that really _did_ get installed.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:08PM (2 children)
What, was there an "exit" interview mid-flight?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:37PM
.....
Rtfp
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @10:09PM
Kinda.
Sorta.
It's extrapolated from the scream of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" halfway down
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday February 03 2019, @11:24AM (2 children)
Replacing skyscrapers with pyramids is a flat-out bizarre plan to reduce the frequency of suicide (and somehow this was marked insightful). Do you, by chance, have a severe fear of heights? Or maybe you're an ambulance-chasing lawyer thinking about how sweet it would be to sue anyone who built a tall building? Or maybe you just grew up in a cave/igloo and are used to non-vertical walls?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:13PM (1 child)
But North Korea is doing it!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel [wikipedia.org]
I was also going to complain about pyramids but I gave the comment an extreme benefit of the doubt. Maybe you could have a stepped pyramid with a fairly steep slope and it might accomplish the goal while not being totally space inefficient. Or it might just give you a bumpy death.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @06:20PM
Or we could mandate fall-speed-reducing awnings every third floor or so.
I mean they'll act like sails and bend the building sideways in a storm (or a normal day on a tall enough sky scraper? I think wind speeds get pretty high up there.) But an occasional sky scraper blowing over is a small price to pay to reduce suicides ...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:32PM
Obviously someone who has never actually been around a suicidal person before. Asking someone if they feel suicidal is only a "feel good" for the listener. If I am considering suicide, I am not going to tell you because your solution to my problem may make my situation even worse than I perceive it to be already. So I would still be keeping suicide as a fallback plan and not confirm that I had even considered it as an option.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @07:22PM (2 children)
Depressed people need to know about the medication, psychotherapy, and psychiatric procedures available to them. But they also need to know about the alternative. When you've tried a dozen antidepressants, maybe 20 rounds of ECT, years of psychotherapy, and you're still very depressed, chances that the next intervention will help, even a little, are near zero.
People who have done their due dilligence, tried every medical option available, with no success, deserve to be made aware of an alternative: the world beyond traditional end-of-life options like that in the article. Suicide can be effected safely, without pain or risk of any harm to others, in a setting consistent with human dignity and the momentousness of the journey. Without stigma or judgement, only love, acceptance, and respect for the courageous choice they've made.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:57PM (1 child)
After all that, no link or explanation?
--
Life without religion is like a fish without a bicycle.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:16PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ZaFg40vqY [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @07:36PM
One Time for Sexual Assault goon less.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @04:27AM (4 children)
PEOPLE!
LISTEN!
A number of people have boarded a plane WITHOUT BEING SCREENED!
IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!
WE MUST TAKE ACTION!!
Otherwise, something bad may happen. Something terrible.
The reputation of the TSA is at stake!
We need a plan. We need action. We need people on the front lines shoving their hands down people's pants to prove that the TSA is needed, that the TSA is wanted, that the TSA is there to do the job that Americans expect them to do.
Otherwise more planes will be taken over by terrorists and run into buildings. Just like 9/11. Don't forget that day.
FOR THE GOOD, OF, AMERICA!
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:10AM
Take it easy. Better just take it easy. It was one Plane. And everybody was O.K. 100% fine. Except for the guy that fell (RIP!!). Jumped, or possibly was pushed. Too bad! That's really too bad.
We love our T.S.A., they're very hard workers. Dedicated. We had to do the Shut Down. And we lost a few because of that. Although, not as many as you'd think. Less workers. Doing the same fantastic job. And everyone was safe. We did that very informally. But I think we can do a Cut there. Spend less money. And get the same results. Very smart. It's what we do.
(Score: 2) by MadTinfoilHatter on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:33AM
No need to worry...
...the show must go on.
(Score: 4, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:26AM
Because à opted out of an X-ray.
He was cheerfully apologetic when he did so, so I permitted him to retain his dignity by not offering my a reacharound to show my great gratitude for his tireless efforts on behalf of air travel safety.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:57AM
"Otherwise, something bad may happen."
Yes, people might actually realize that the TSA is in fact a useless waste of money and isn't needed. Wouldn't want that to happen, now, would we.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:23AM (7 children)
Dear Benevolent Dictator,
I can't take it anymore. Every time a grope a small child, I see my own daughters and nieces. Every time I grope a crippled old veteran, I see my dad and my uncles. Every time I am forced to grope an old woman, I see my granny. I'm tired of groping every innocent I meet, while political correctness prohibits me from groping the loudmouthed, obnoxious raghead who laughs while he watches me groping everyone but him.
Goodbye, cruel bastards!
TSA Agent Alfred E. Neuman
(Score: 3, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:56AM
I'm not a Dictator. Unfortunately -- wouldn't that be tremendous? But I'm working very hard for you. And against Political Correctness. I did Muslim Ban. Also known as Travel Ban. Call it what you want. And I had to leave some countries out of that one -- Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and the others. Very bad news for Economy if we do the Ban on those. But I banned the worst ones. To give our leaders time to figure out what's happening with the Radical Islamic Terrorists. And believe me, we didn't just sit back and think about that one. We moved very strongly against Al Qaeda, against I.S.I.S. We defeated I.S.I.S. Hardly anyone thought we could do that. And nobody thought it would happen so fast. Our brave soldiers are all coming back from Syria, and they're coming back now. I'm not bringing them back yet. But in time that's something that can happen. Possibly. America First!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:57AM (5 children)
I seriously will never travel to the USA. Or anywhere near it. I don't want someone shoving their hands into my pants just to get into your country. No. Just, no.
A while back I read an article about a plane flying from another country to Canada. Nothing to do with the US. There was a problem that let to the plane having to touch down at a US airport. They forced everyone off the plane and then to be processed by American agents. Some passengers tried to stay on the plane. They were forced off. Some passengers asked to stay in the 'international zone' and not enter the US. This was refused. They were forced to go through US procedures.
There was another article years back about passengers on a plane travelling near US airspace having to give their data to the US to get on the flight. A flight that did not start or end in the US.
It is high time to avoid the place, at least until the citizens take back control of their own country.
(Score: 3, Touché) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:43AM (1 child)
That's O.K. You can keep your virginity. You don't have to come to our Country. Unless we Extradite you.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @01:26PM
Will Kim.Com get to keep his virginity when you drag him to your country after draining his bank accounts and stealing his data and destroying guys business?
(I dislike the wanker on principle, but seriously due process is just that. You guys acted like criminals and got caught with your hand in the cookie jar)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:05PM (1 child)
We don't have an "international zone" at airports. You will need a visa to transit here. And if you are wanted by US justice, if you come into our grasp, you will stay here for a while.
Reality is, demonstrated progressively aggressively since Baby Bush, that the US is strong and your pissant country is weak. Your country is so dependent on us, that you will screw your own citizens just to please our whims. We want something, we get it. And you may not like it, but you will submit.
Funny that we can still apply so much pressure, even as our country and society is falling apart internally. I guess we are blessed with both geography and a citizenry that is willing to go to war while living at the edge if the dumpster.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:08PM
Just so you know, you don't need a visa from certain countries for limited time business/pleasure.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:31PM
I don't want someone shoving their hands into my pants just to get into your country
I've not heard of that, certainly I've never been searched on the way into the U.S.
On the way out? Well that's a different matter. The solution is to drive to Canada or Mexico and fly from there.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:24AM
**crash**
- what? Man crashed through the roof!
- It's the TSA guy!
- what do? *Feverishly consults instructions*
"In case of unforeseen emergency refer to the nearest TSA agent"
*Looks around*
- sir! There is an emergency, you crashed through the roof! Sir! SIIIR!!!
Account abandoned.