Miami man sues airline over evacuation injuries
American jet’s engine caught fire in Chicago
MIAMI— ASouth Floridamanis suing American Airlines for physical and psychological injuries he allegedly suffered during an emergency evacuation of a jetliner that caught fire in Chicago shortly before its scheduled takeoff forMiami.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, plaintiff Scott Becker, 47, alleges American negligently failed to provide a safe flight and failed to ensure the aircraftwas properly maintained.
In his June 13 complaint, Becker, a Miami resident, also alleged that American failed “to provide proper assistance, supervision and instruction in the evacuation” of the widebodied Boeing 767 after the fire broke out at O’Hare International Airport last October. It said the airline failed to “instruct and advise [Becker] and other passengers as to the proper and safe evacuation procedure.”
The lawsuit seeks more than $75,000 in damages including attorney fees for “personal and bodily injuries, both physical and psychological in nature,” as well as medical bills, lost earnings, disability, pain and suffering and past and future emotional distress.
In a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report issued the day of the accident, the federal agency said the jetliner suffered an “uncontained engine failure.”
That failure resulted in a fuel leak that sparked a fire under the aircraft’s right wing, the NTSB’s findings showed.
Responding to the lawsuit Tuesday, American said in a statement: “We are proud of our pilots, flight attendants and other team memberswhoresponded quickly on Oct. 28, 2016, to take care of our customers and colleagues under very challenging circumstances. ... We are confident that once the investigation is complete, any safety recommendations issued by the NTSB will enhance aviation safety worldwide.”
The Fort Lauderdale law firm of Krupnick Campbell Malone Buser Slama Hancock & Liberman is representing Becker. The firm says it is representing four other passengers whowere aboard the flight but have not joined the suit.
“Therewas a lot of chaos,” Krupnick Campbell attorney Joseph Slama said in an interview Tuesday. “The explosion and [subsequent] fire was huge. Everyone could see and feel the heat.”
Becker had “severe injuries” to his shoulder and back, when hewas blown back and knocked down by the engine exhaust after evacuating down an emergency slide, Slama said.
Becker, whose job requires frequent travel, relives the traumaeach time he flies, the lawyer said.
Some of the other passengers represented suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder and ongoing depression issues related to the accident, Slama said.
“Fifteen seconds later, they all feel theywould have been dead, had the fire occurred when the plane was airborne,” added Blake Dolman, another Krupnick Campbell attorney involved in the case.
Last Thursday, the NTSB releasedmorethan500pagesof information relating to the ongoing investigation, which included transcripts of passenger and crew inter-