Unfriendly Skies

"Unfriendly Skies"

This is the ninth episode from the first series of the popular American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

In this episode, a man is killed mid-flight in the first class section of a plane. Gil Grissom and the team have to put together what happened without the help of the witnesses (the first class passengers and one flight attendant) who all seem to be hiding something. The case makes the team question their own beliefs and what they would have done had they been in the passengers' positions.

Template:Spoilers The victim Tony Candelwell seemed normal from his flight to Atlanta heading into Los Angeles, but on the plane he was labelled a bully and a psychopath by the other first class passengers. He kicked the back seat of office worker Nate Metz, who got his computer wrecked in the process. Meanwhile, a businessman named Lou Everett was drinking whiskey and accidentally spilled some on his suit while looking at the commotion. After Metz threw his laptop at Candelwell's lap, Candelwell mocked him and Everett was going to punch him (his actions made him spill his drink). He missed by a mile and Candelwell used a CD-ROM from Metz's computer and slashed Lou's face, causing him to fall back into his seat and spills his bottles of whiskey.

Max Valdez didn't want to get involved, but his wife Marlene made him and got pushed by Candelwell into the serving cart. Marlene, fearing for her life, tried to cut Candelwell but got his hand. Candelwell, with his hand bleeding, tried to use the bathroom but it was locked. Two passengers named Vicki Mercer and Carl Finn were inside joining the "Mile High club".

Since the bathroom was locked, Candelwell would try to open the cockpit door which would result in the plane crashing. Preston Cash (Avery) was legally blind but heard Max and Lou jumping Candelwell at the exit. Candelwell was crawling towards coach, but was stopped in his tracks by Max, Lou, Marlene, Nate and Dr. Keira Buerhle. Dr. Buerhle joined in the fight to protect her daughter Emily and saw Candelwell as a potential threat.

After the intense mob beatdown, Candelwell died. Shannon returned from coach to witness the end result. The doctor tried to perform CPR to cover up the murder. Grissom knows now that Dr. Buerhle, Nate Metz, Lou Everett and the Valdezes are guilty of murder, but the Sheriff decides to let them walk. "Human nature" and "human survival" were the main factor. Even if they did go to trial, they would still be found not guilty due to "human survival" theories.

Candelwell's bullying behavior was determined by the CSI Laboratories to be a result of enlarged cranial encephalitis, or in layman's terms "a cantaloupe in a can". High altitude and the cabin pressure of the plane can make a person with encephalitis a raging maniac. As the rest of the team were disappointed that justice wasn't done, they were talking about the "human survival" theory and tried to put themselves in the passengers' place, but Grissom told them nobody took the place of the victim. He knew Candelwell was suffering from his ailment, but none of the passengers asked him about it. If one of them did, Candelwell would still be alive. As Grissom put it, "It took 5 people to kill Candelwell. It would've taken 1 person to save his life."