Survivors’ suit vs. Southwest

Eight passengers aboard the deadly Southwest flight in April have sued the airline over the jet’s engine failure that caused a fellow passenger to be killed and nearly sucked out through a window.

The suing 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,” the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit states.

The pilot was able to make an emergency landing.

The suit was filed in New York because the San Francisco-bound flight took off from La Guardia Airport.

“That was the last opportunity for defendant Southwest Airlines to inspect, de- tect 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.

The group — Texas residents Elhadji Cisse, Cindy Arenas, Jaky 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.

It is the second lawsuit over the incident. Another passenger, Lilia Chavez, was the first to sue, in Pennsylvania federal court in April.

A rep for Southwest said, “We have no comment to offer on the pending litigation.”

The family of passenger Jennifer Riordan, who was killed when the Boeing 737700’s jets exploded, shattering a plane window, has not filed suit.

In May, the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the engine failure to faulty fan blades that were last overhauled in 2012.