MANHATTAN: Eight passengers who were aboard the Southwest Airlines flight that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after an engine failed have filed a lawsuit against Boeing Co., the airline and engine manufacturers.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges Boeing negligently failed to assure the 737 and engine were reasonably safe and failed to provide adequate warnings and safety instructions.
“Boeing, in its business of designing, developing, manufacturing and selling aircraft, including the component engines, had a duty to assure that its aircraft was reasonably safe for the passengers flying therein, whose safety and lives are at risk,” the passengers’ attorney wrote in the suit.
Boeing declined to comment on pending litigation.
GE Aviation Systems, Safran USA and CFM International were also named in the lawsuit. The companies manufactured the engine from which a fan blade detached and caused a catastrophic series of events on Flight 1380 that ultimately resulted in the death of one passenger. She was partially sucked out of a window in the depressurized plane cabin.
The April 17 incident was Southwest Airlines’ first fatal airplane accident. The major concern for Southwest in the lawsuit is the allegation that the carrier “negligently failed to reasonably monitor, inspect, test, service, maintain and repair the aircraft and the engine to keep its aircraft reasonably safe for its passengers and to remove from service aircraft that were not reasonably safe.”
The passengers are seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
Boeing, which has more than 140,000 employees, reported $93.4 billion in 2017 and a record 763 commercial deliveries.
