Delta emergency @ LAX, dumps fuel on school playground.

[Geosync]

Originally Posted by OldnGrounded

I'm finding all of the outrage over the certainty of lawsuits and the mockery of the claimants and their attorneys rather amusing. It's amusing for several reasons:

1. Virtually the entire population of the Western world, with the exception of workers in industries such as aviation, naturally see any exposure to petroleum-based fuels as a health hazard. That should really be obvious to everyone here, at least to everyone who is able to take a moment to view the situation through the eyes of ordinary laypeople.

2. Our legal system (to include essentially all of the English-speaking world) is deliberately designed and organized as an adversarial one. It is a feature of such a system that people who feel they have been harmed or wronged begin their quest for redress with exaggerated claims of suffering and maximum demonization of contemplated defendants. The processes that follow almost always bring the narrative closer to reality and rational analysis. This is just how it works. If you want a system that encourages dispassionate search for truth and fairness, you want a different system than we have.

3. Plaintiff's lawyers are paid to maximize their client's damage awards and the ones who do that best are often masters of melodrama. Again, it's a feature of the system. Milquetoast attorneys don't get big verdicts and aren't likely to be sought by lawyer-shopping clients.

4. Public servants and elected officials must be seen to be championing the causes of their constituents. That's how they keep their jobs, get re-elected, have support to advance their careers, etc. Another feature of the system.

5. The media make money, keep jobs, etc. by luring eyes and ears and attention to their various outlets and publications. And the masses are most attracted to hype. It's a matter of human nature.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone who is reasonably familiar with Western culture. And none of it is going to change, much, as long as our culture is organized as it is and has been for a very long time. Don't hold your breath.

Oh, just by the way, the people some of you are mocking are virtually certain to be significantly compensated for the injuries they believe they have suffered. That's going to happen because the prospective defendants have lawyers and accountants who know perfectly well that there's no way to avoid that. They can look into their crystal calls and visualize a courtroom where plaintiff's experts tell horror stories about the dangers of Jet A and show the impressionable jury images of associated suffering and typical MSDS documents for the fuel:

http://www.cpchem.com/msds/100000014588_SDS_US_EN.PDF

Well said. There is a difference between the reasonable actions of a pilot during an emergency, and legal liability in a court of law. Since it was a deliberate act by the crew, when there were other options, Delta is still liable for the “damages” of the people on the ground. Look I’ve dunked my hands in countless buckets of 100LL and Jet A to clean parts as a mechanic. That doesn't mean Joe Q public is happy about getting fuel dumped on them and their kids.

If you make a dead stick landing in a field and one poor ba&*tard going for a hike is run over and killed, you are liable for that death, even if it saved all 100 people on board of the airplane. You did it, so you are liable, regardless of the intentions. A neighborhood of people that know nothing about jet fuel would rightfully freak out when it starts raining from the sky. The pilot will probably be just fine. Plaintiff attorneys aren’t dumb, they know where they money is. They aren’t out to crucify the pilots, and that would be a tough argument to make anyway. Sue the airline, the airline settles with the plaintiffs, and that’s that. Drop 1 million bucks to disperse between the plaintiffs, because it will cost that much to defend it all the way to trial where they would lose anyway, Happens every day here in America.