With citizens of the world's most litigious nation aboard, it was only a matter of time before this matter arose. As mikegreatrex's calculation suggests, such a rate of descent would have resulted in a hole in the ground in under 20 seconds, from typical cruising alt.
Clearly Joanna Walters confused her notes and was referring to what the lawyers told her they intend to milk out of the incident in dollars per second - an easy mistake to make.