Passenger on deadly Southwest flight files lawsuit: 'She prayed and feared for her life'

One of the passengers on the Southwest flight which made an emergency landing following engine failure has filed a lawsuit against the airline, as well as the makers of the plane and engine. When the engine exploded, pieces of it blew out a window on the plane, causing a woman to be killed when she was partially sucked out the window.

Lilia Chavez filed suit against Southwest Airlines, GE Aviation, Safran Aircraft Engines and CFM International, a supplier of jet engines, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday. Chavez alleges in the lawsuit that the companies "unforgivably breached" the trust of passengers who "entrust their lives and safety, to entities such as Southwest and the CFM Defendants."

Jennifer Riordan, 43, was the first person to die on an American airline in almost 10 years in the April 17 incident. The plane, destined for Dallas, had taken off from LaGuardia International Airport in New York when the engine blew about 20 minutes into the flight. The pilot managed to safely land the plane in Philadelphia.

Chavez was sitting three rows behind where Riordan was partially sucked out the window, the lawsuit says.

"Ms. Chavez witnessed the horror as the force of the depressurization pulled an innocent passenger partially through the shattered window and she watched as passengers risked their lives to pull the passenger back into the aircraft and save her life," the lawsuit says.

According to Chavez, the cabin became "a whirlwind of airflow and airborne debris which struck Ms. Chavez and obstructed her breathing."

In the filing, Chavez says she "prayed and feared for her life" and she called her children to tell them she loved them and was preparing to die. Once the flight landed, Chavez alleges workers for Southwest did not appropriately care for her and fellow passengers.

Bad hair day? If that’s how Frontier reacts, no wonder they’ve done a round or two through bankruptcy court.

When I buy a non-stop ticket from Dallas to Atlanta, and the route is dropped, but they say that I have to use the ticket on a Dallas - Atlanta routing with a 12 hour layover at the Las Vegas airport, they aren’t delivering what they sold. And you insult me by saying I’m must having a bad hair day and that I’m an idiot.

I look forward to your next bankruptcy.

I wish there was enough room on this FR server to list all the hateful attacks we’ve had on crew and staff. You naturally assume that Frontier willing dropped the route just for upsetting passengers, like it’s our thing to do? Did you bother to find out the reason? There are also reasons for re-routing. Do you think that Frontier owns the gates at the airports they fly to? Frontier tried to accommodate you but you were too juvenile to find out the reasons. I sincerely hope you fly those other airlines and give them grief when things happen out of their control. I wouldn’t want you on one of my flights. You also accept responsibility when you buy a ticket to read the fine print.

Did you bother to find out the reason?

Yes, I know the reason. They were in financial trouble and were having to cut back to stave off bankruptcy a little bit longer.

Do you think that Frontier owns the gates at the airports they fly to?

If you don't know, they either lease them or sub-lease them. Since the event being discussed didn't involve any change in the number of gates, you are trying to deflect by throwing out a red herring.

Frontier tried to accommodate you

No, accommodating me would have been re-booking me on another airline, or at least willingly refunding the ticket when they couldn't honor it. Even the credit card company realized, after a brief discussion, that I was not offered a reasonable accommodation.

I wouldn’t want you on one of my flights.

The only risk of that is if you manage to land a job with an airline I'm willing to fly. As I've indicated, Frontier has lost a customer for life. And it appears that their customer service has only gone downhill since my last interaction with them.

I sincerely hope you fly those other airlines and give them grief when things happen out of their control.

It appears that you don't know the meaning of 'out of their control'. 'Out of their control' would include things like a 10 hour delay on a flight from DFW to ATL because of weather. AirTran did an excellent job of keeping the waiting passengers informed. Or a 3 day delay Las Vegas - DFW because of an ice storm. Again, the AA did what they could. Borderline would be a 3 day delay Charlotte to Frankfurt because of a taxiway collision. The airline could have done better on accommodations but I cut them some slack since US Air had a limited ground staff trying to get over 300 folks situated (plus however many were on the other plane) with no advance notice.) I say borderline, since the problem was caused by pilot error, but it certainly wasn't the fault of the ground crew.

On the other hand, "within their control" includes cold blooded business determinations that the benefit of screwing a few passengers exceeds the cost of doing so.

I wouldn't expect a person like you to understand, but if you speak to a Christian, you might learn that sometimes folks should do the right thing even if they aren't legally compelled to do so.

Fortunately, in all of my travels on a dozen and a half or so airlines, I haven't had to deal with anyone like you. I wonder if someone with your anger issues should even be flying.

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