TSA hero saves passenger who fell on train tracks

An off-duty Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker rescued a passenger on the Chicago subway system who had fallen on the tracks.

The TSA employee, Chicago-area resident Eddie Palacios, was waiting for a train on the Chicago Transit Authority’s  Blue Line on Wednesday when he saw another passenger fall on the tracks as an oncoming train was approaching, according to ABC News.

Palacios, who works at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, jumped onto the tracks and waved his arms to alert the driver of the train to stop.

{mosads}A reporter for Chicago website DNAinfo.com was also in the station at the time of the incident. Palacios told the reporter, who recorded the incident, that he was just using his TSA training. 

“I wasn’t even thinking about putting myself in danger because I work at TSA,” Palacios told the website. “They taught us a lot of things to do and how to act in situations, not to put ourselves in harm or put other people in harm.”

A TSA spokesman told ABC News that Palacios was well-trained for emergency situations. 

“Sometimes at checkpoints they have to make quick and calculated decisions,” TSA spokesman Jim McKinney told the network. “Their training works.”

The Chicago Blue Line drew attention recently when a train derailed at O’Haire airport. Service on the rail line, which is part of the third-busiest transit system in the U.S., was not interrupted by the TSA employee incident.