Southwest survivors could collect millions
Plane’s maintenance is the expected target
Despite the praise Southwest Airlines is drawing from passengers for the valiant efforts of its crew during the deadly ordeal of Flight 1380, the airline probably still faces tens of millions of dollars in legal damages from the people on board, experts say.
The Dallas-bound Boeing 737 was not far out of New York when an engine blew apart, firing shrapnel along the fuselage and smashing a window. A heroic emergency landing in Philadelphia followed, but one passenger was killed, seven wounded and the rest rattled by the episode.
“The airline will be responsible for the maintenance of the aircraft,” says Jonathan Johnson, an Atlanta lawyer who has handled aviation cases for 25 years. “Clearly there was a problem with the engine that was not rectified.”
Johnson says lawyers for the passengers will most likely target Southwest Airlines and not other parties involved such as Boeing or the the engine’s builder, a joint venture led by General Electric. By law, he said, Southwest has
“We have been dealing with metal fatigue since the Copper Age. Fatigue starts with a crack and propagates. It takes time, it begins to fail, then it fails.” David Katzman Aviation lawyer and pilot
the “highest duty of care” toward the passengers they fly.
Southwest’s insurance carriers likely will pay the bulk of any damages, he said.
David Katzman, a pilot and aviation
lawyer whose firm includes an office in Philadelphia, said the engine inspections will be a crucial component in determining what went wrong. The NTSB has focused on metal fatigue on a fan blade that broke in the engine.
Last year, Southwest Airlines opposed a recommendation by the engine manufacturer to require ultrasonic inspections of fan blades in the engines within 12 months, saying it needed more time to do the work.
Katzman says the blade would have started cracking, then would have taken time to break off. He wondered aloud how many times the plane flew after the initial crack. “We have been dealing with metal fatigue since the Copper Age,” he said. “Fatigue starts with a crack and propagates. It takes time, it begins to fail, then it fails.”
Avi Cohen, a lawyer in Nassau County, N.Y., says damages to the family of Jennifer Riordan, the flight’s lone fatality, could run into eight figures — tens of millions of dollars.
Riordan was sucked halfway out a broken window, witnesses said. Two men pulled her back into the aircraft, but CPR failed to revive her.
“There are no apologies that would make the family of Jennifer Riordan whole again,” Cohen said. “Nor will they be able to provide a defense for this gruesome death.”
Lawyers generally must wait 45 days before reaching out to passengers involved in aviation accidents. Johnson, however, said he already has been con- tacted by a family on the flight. “They are telling me about the horrible symptoms they are facing. Nightmares reliving the incident, reactions to loud noises, things that can affect them the rest of their lives.”
All passengers who walked away uninjured most likely suffer post-traumatic stress, he said. Based on past cases, Johnson suggested that could translate to $250,000 or more per passenger. There were 144 passengers and five crew members aboard the flight.
The injured will be due more, Johnson said. He dismissed reports that that seven people suffered “minor injuries.” Those can include broken bones and other wounds that can take a long time to heal, he said, and it can take days for bruises or internal injuries to reveal themselves.
“In a catastrophic airplane accident, usually if you can walk away from it they will often count it as a minor injury,” Johnson said.
Many passengers have lauded the courage and calm of pilot Tammie Jo Shults and the flight attendants. But Cohen said the question will be the plane, not the crew.
“Kudos to the pilot for safely landing the plane,” Johnson said. “But anyone on that plane will have been horrified, terrified by the experience.”
Cohen said Southwest also could have handled the tragedy better. He noted CEO Gary Kelly expressed sympathies for our “deceased customer.”
“Kelly did a decent job of showing remorse,” Cohen said. “But Jennifer Riordan was a mother, a wife, a person. The response sounded more corporate than personal.”