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Woman says Southwest flight crew wouldn't let her call suicidal husband
Sunday, May 17, 2015 01:06PM

MILWAUKEE, WI --
A Wisconsin woman says she tried to call her husband moments before he apparently killed himself, but wasn't allowed to by a flight crew, reports television station WTMJ.

Karen Momsen-Evers was in New Orleans aboard a Southwest Airlines flight back home to Germantown, Wisconsin when she received a disturbing text from her husband, asking for forgiveness for what he was about to do.

"I started shaking the minute I got the text and I was panicked," she said. "I didn't know what to do."

Karen says she knew he was serious because he'd been under a lot of stress. She tried to quickly call him, but says a flight attendant wouldn't let her.

"The steward slapped the phone down and said, 'You need to go on airplane mode now,'" said Karen.

Karen was in tears as the plane took off, and as the flight reached cruising altitude, she says she tried again to have a flight attendant make an emergency call.

"I just wanted somebody to go and try to save him, and nobody helped," she said.

Karen sat in her seat for the rest of the flight crying and staring at the text her husband had sent. When the flight landed in Milwaukee, she called police, but it was too late. Her husband was dead.

Southwest Airlines offered a statement, saying their "hearts go out to the Evers family during this difficult time." They went on to say that flight attendants are trained to notify the captain if there's an emergency that poses a hazard to the plane or passengers on board.

In this case, they say the captain wasn't notified.

Karen says the outcome could have been changed.

"The pain of knowing that something could have been done," said Karen. "It breaks my heart."

Southwest Airlines offered Karen a full refund on the flight.

Scooter wrote:I was going to post this story a few days ago. There's no way of knowing whether local police could have gotten to her husband in time to stop him, but that is precisely the point. This woman was tortured for two hours by being forced to sit helplessly because of the desire of yet another airline lackey to play God, and she will be tormented for the rest of her life wondering whether she could have saved her husband if she had been given the chance.

The airline should pay HUGE for this one.

MajGenl.Meade wrote:I thought phone calls were permitted after take-off?

Moments before her flight from New Orleans to Milwaukee took off on April 3, Karen Momsen-Evers told Wisconsin's NBC affiliate TMJ4 she received a disturbing text from her husband, indicating he intended to commit suicide.

Momsen-Evers immediately texted her husband back "no," but when she attempted to call him, a flight attendant forced her to turn off her phone, citing Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

She complied, then asked a second attendant for assistance once the flight reached cruising altitude, only to be denied.

"I begged her, I said I'm sure someone can make an emergency phone call," Momsen-Evers recalled to the station.

"I showed her the texts. She said that there is nothing she could do and that they could not disturb the pilot," she added to Fox News. "I just wanted someone to go and try to save him."

bigskygal wrote:Yes, but they can be charged with a felony/misdemeanor federal or state crime for such behavior, as well as be assessed a very heavy fine.

It is unreasonable to demand that airline operators have foreseen and put in place methods of accommodating any and all eventualities external to airline safety no matter how dramatic and compassion-inducing they are. The were other paths not taken by her as well.

I'm sure that those asking for ball scores asked nicely.

Quite a coincidence that he texted when she was boarding the plane. If it was.

What are the odds?

bigskygal wrote:Maybe she really didn't give a shit that he offed himself, but she's looking to play litigation lottery?


eta: Because all lawyers are scum and all plaintiffs are whiny gold-diggers, of course!

I'm sure that those asking for ball scores asked nicely.

bigskygal wrote:Yes, but they can be charged with a felony/misdemeanor federal or state crime for such behavior, as well as be assessed a very heavy fine.