AMERICAN AIRLINES STATEMENT REGARDING DEATH OF PASSENGER
FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines is very saddened over the death of passenger Carine Desir on Flight 896 from Haiti to New York’s JFK Airport last Friday and extends its deepest sympathy to the grieving family.
We are investigating this incident, as we do with all serious medical situations onboard our aircraft, but American Airlines can say oxygen was administered and the Automatic External Defibrillator was applied.
Among the preflight duties of our highly trained Flight Attendants is a check of all emergency equipment on the aircraft. This includes checking the oxygen bottles – there were 12 in this particular aircraft. We stand behind the actions and training of our crew and the functionality of the onboard medical equipment. We are also grateful to medical volunteers on this flight who came to the aid of a fellow traveler during flight.
I am inclined to believe that the relative of Carine Desir misinterpreted what was going on in the cabin as non-functioning equipment and incompetence because there was probably a lot of things going on to help the woman. In the end, they were unable to save her, and that just compounded his frustration and grief, and probably why he believes the equipment was inoperable.
I guess we will see as more details come out. But as a former flight attendant, I just cannot imagine that someone missed the pre-flight check of more than one O2 bottle. That would be a huge violation.