Passenger On Flight With Engine Explosion Sues Southwest Airlines

A passenger on the ill-fated Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Dallas on April 17 that involved an engine explosion and a rare fatality is suing the airline, according to reports. After the traumatic events that led to an emergency landing, Lilia Chavez filed a lawsuit Thursday against Southwest Airlines in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

According to the suit, Chavez suffered physical injuries from the flight, as she was seated three rows behind the smashed window that killed passenger Jennifer Riordan. Chavez also claims to deal with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from the incident.

Chavez had to make contact with her children to tell them she might die on the plane, adding to the distress of the situation, the lawsuit said.

“This accident has crippled her will, and she is in shock over this horrible, near-death experience,” Chavez’s lawyer Bradley J. Stoll told NPR.

The lawsuit bolstered its case by including the hardships Chavez has faced in her life. As a teenager, she became a mother figure to her siblings after their mother died. Her siblings had legal trouble during that time, occasionally going to jail, according to NPR.

Now, allegedly due to negligence by the airline, Chavez is at least one passenger on that flight to deal with mental stress in the aftermath. Several passengers told reporters afterward that they had resigned themselves to death, going as far as to send farewell text messages to their loved ones as the plane made its emergency landing.

Riordan was nearly sucked out of the plane after engine debris smashed a window. She was the only passenger to die. Her death marked the first airline fatality in the U.S. in almost a decade.

Pilot Tammie Jo Shults has garnered praise for maintaining her composure and preventing the situation from becoming worse.

Southwest apologized for the incident and gave money and travel vouchers to passengers on the flight.

CNN reported that Southwest said on Saturday that "its focus was to work with the National Transportation Safety Board in investigating the incident."