Southwest Airlines engine explodes mid-air
Deadly inflight explosion leaves one dead, another fighting for her life. Aviation consultant JP Tristani comments on 'Fox & Friends First.'
Eight passengers aboard the deadly Southwest flight in April have sued the airline over the plane’s engine failure that caused a passenger to be sucked out through a window.
The seven survivors’ say the incident forced them to confront “their greatest fear, the overwhelming horror of being trapped in a plane about to crash.”
“As a direct result of the frightful, death-threatening Flight 1380 incident, each Plaintiff suffered severe mental, emotional and psychological injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical injuries,” they say in the new Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
The pilot was able to make an emergency landing.
The suit was filed in New York because the San Fransisco-bound flight took off from New York’s La Guardia Airport.
“That was the last opportunity for Defendant Southwest Airlines to inspect, detect and correct the problem of a fractured fan blade that was about to cause the fatal engine failure, or in the alternative to remove the aircraft from service,” the suit says.
It faults Southwest for failing to “reasonably monitor, inspect, test, service maintain and repair the aircraft.”
The group– Texas residents Elhadji Cisse, Cindy Arenas, Jaky Arenas and Jiny Arenas, a Louisiana couple named Donald and Beverly Kirkland, and Conor Brown and Cassandra Adams of New Mexico– is suing for unspecified damages.
Theirs is the second lawsuit over the incident. Another passenger, Lilia Chavez, was the first to sue in Pennsylvania federal court in April.
Southwest did not immediately return a request for comment.
The family of passenger Jennifer Riordan, who was killed when the Boeing 737-700’s jets exploded shattering a plane window, has not filed a suit.
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