Unfriendly Skies

Yesterday evening, I watched CSI Las Vegas, “Unfriendly Skies”. It was a story about a man who died in a commercial flight en route to Las Vegas. The man was unaware that he was suffering from an illness. He lost his ability to rationalize and it was a rough flight for him. The passengers on-board felt their lives were threatened by this man. They took measures into their own hands and killed the man.

What really got me about this episode was what Grissom said in the last scene.
"If one person had taken the time to look at the guy, to listen to him, to figure out what was wrong with him, it might not have happened. It took five people to kill him. It would have taken only one person to save his life."

I work in the service industry primarily in post-sales support, I could relate to the above sentiment in terms of support. The hallmark of a good support is listening, ability to empathize with others and a little dash of altruism. The first person that listens and takes ownership of the customer’s issue is typically the person that could help the customer and bring closure to their problem. When a customer seeks help and had to go from one person to another and can’t make headway with his or her support team. That’s a recipe for disaster.


Their conversation during re-enactment is very comical. Nick and Warrick....ahh lovely couple :)
(Inside the airplane, Grissom and the rest of the team re-enact the events of that night)
Grissom: Okay, Vicki Mercer and Carl Finn. I believe are in the bathroom. (Warrick and Catherine carry their dummies into the plane's bathroom)
Warrick: Mile high club.Catherine: If you ask me, it's their spouses that are the dummies.
Grissom: Emily Behrle is in 3F. (Nick puts the dummy he's carrying into 3F)
Grissom: Preston Cash, 1A.
Brass (raises his dummy): Tony Candlewell, dead guy.
Grissom: Right there, 3C. And for now, he's alive until he's dead. (Brass sets his dummy into seat 3C, then turns to Grissom)
Brass: So, you want to tell us what we're doing here? (they gather around to hear his explaination)
Grissom: The physical evidence that Sara, Nick, and I collected is contradicting the anecdotal statements that you, Catherine, and Warrick got and my money's on the physical evidence.
Catherine: So is mine. These passengers are lying.
Grissom: I mean, if this was an arson case, we'd burn down an empty house to prove our theory, right? Well, in this case we're going to recreate the flight from... 1630 hours on. You are in 4B. (he hands Brass a card)
Brass: Lou.
Catherine: Lou--- the angry businessman. How about that?
Sara: I want to be Shannon. (he hands Sara the card) Good.
Warrick: The stewardess.
Sara: Excuse me--- it's "Flight Attendant".
Grissom: Catherine---the doctor, 3E. (hands her the card)
Catherine: Single mom. What an imagination you have.
Grissom: Max and Marlene, 2E and F. You two are married. Who wants to wear the pants?
Nick: CSI-3 seniority, "sweetie". (Nick takes the card from Grissom. Warrick reaches over for his)
Warrick: Yeah, whatever. You're henpecked anyway.
Sara (to Grissom): Let me guess---you're the computer geek.
Grissom: In the interest of clarity, yes. Nate in 2C.

All in all, it was an excellent episode.