Carol Anne Gotbaum was a South African-born air traveler who died, at age 45, on September 28, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona in Sky Harbor International Airport while being held in police custody.
After being denied passage on a later flight, Gotbaum became irate; reviews of publicly available closed-circuit security tapes shows her lurching about and flailing, as well as hurling a PDA device at a U.S. Airways employee.
Several passengers subsequently claimed they attempted to switch seats so she could make her flight, but were dissuaded by employees of the airline, U.S. Airways but there is no information available to verify this.
The Gotbaum family announced its intention to investigate and potentially sue the police pending an autopsy, which they hired a representative to attend.
[8] On August 21, 2008, the Maricopa County Attorney determined that the Phoenix police officers involved in the arrest of Carol Gotbaum did not break any laws and will not be prosecuted.
Their father, Naval Officer, Commander (retired) Henry Brian Stiger, to whom Carol was particularly close, died of lymphoma in 2006.