Woman "locked" on board empty jet sues

[AnthonyGA]

This woman is suing United Airlines because she was left on an empty airplane after she fell asleep and was "traumatized" by the "locked doors":

Woman Sues After Being Left On Plane - Detroit Local News Story - WDIV Detroit (http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/23694661/detail.html)

When did the doors of large airliners become equipped with locks?

[simonchowder]

Silly cow should have set her alarm or had a few less scoops during the flight hopefully the airline will tell her to do one.

[Agaricus bisporus]

What can she sue for; how has she been disadvantaged by this, apart from being shown to be a stupid dopey bitch?
Or rather a stupid, dopey, greedy, money-grabbing bitch?

Locked? Not on any airliner I've ever seen. Parhaps she should be sued for not paying attention to the emergency brief that would have allowed her to leave the "locked" (sic) aeroplane, had she bothered to pay attention when asked.

They don't call them self loading freight for nothing, do they?

What a plank.

[aviatordom]

Fair enough, the crew could have done a final check of the cabin before leaving, but...

What is even more worrying is that she presumably didn't decide to take a look at any one of the dozens if not hundreds of the safety cards that are on-board, which funnily enough tell you how to open the doors.

:ugh:

[simonchowder]

I suppose in mitigation she is both female and american, so lets not expect too much from her

[donnlass]

When an aircraft is left overnight are steps or the tunnel left attached?

If she had opened the doors could she have safely left the plane?

[AlpineSkier]

@aviatordom

..and does the same card tell you how to descend from a door that is 7-9 m (guess) off the ground ?


I'm sure they didn't leave it connected to an air-bridge.:ugh:

As for "the crew could have done a final check of the cabin before leaving, but.. "

I don't think it's a matter of "could", I am sure that they are mandated to do so.


I hold no brief for people who take no responsibility for themselves, but I cannot see any way in which the cabin crew were not grossly negligent in their duties in overlooking a passenger on-board.

[GARDENER]

In response to the above

"@aviatordom

..and does the same card tell you how to descend from a door that is 7-9 m (guess) off the ground ? "

Yes it does if memory serves me correctly....called an escape slide?

[Chesty Morgan]

But you can arm them from the inside!

[AircraftOperations]

You can arm them from inside, but the safety card doesn't tell you that or how to do it. You'd have to be a regular and observant passenger or have aviation experience to know that.

[Hartington]

But if the slide doesn't deploy when you open the door (because it's not armed) you pull the toggle to release the slide.

[aviatordom]

The crew mentions pulling the toggle if the slide does not deploy in the safety briefing, and the cards point it out too, so there would have been little excuse if the said Woman opened the door and the slide did not deploy automatically.

If you don't listen to the safety procedures because you are distracted by looking outside, reading, sneakily listening to music or sleeping because you have a "nothing will happen to me attitude" then you have no leg to stand on if something does happen and you try and blame the Airline for what happened.

[Getoutofmygalley]

But if the slide doesn't deploy when you open the door (because it's not armed) you pull the toggle to release the slide.

The crew mentions pulling the toggle if the slide does not deploy in the safety briefing, and the cards point it out too, so there would have been little excuse if the said Woman opened the door and the slide did not deploy automatically.

If you don't listen to the safety procedures because you are distracted by looking outside, reading, sneakily listening to music or sleeping because you have a "nothing will happen to me attitude" then you have no leg to stand on if something does happen and you try and blame the Airline for what happened.

And in order to pull the toggle to manually inflate the slide, the slide has to be ARMED in the first place.

The arming of the door connects the girt bar on the slide to the brackets in the floor so that when the door is opened the slide gets pulled out of the bustle and inflates as it drops to the floor. If the slide is not armed, the girt bar won't connect to those brackets, therefore the slide will not be yanked out of the bustle and will not drop to the floor. If the slide stays inside the bustle then there is no toggle to pull.

The airline is at fault, the passenger is not at fault. The airline failed to carry out it's security procedures, the passenger should not be expected to open the door herself (in darkness as I doubt the cabin lights would have been left illuminated). And even if she had managed to arm the door, inflate the slide and get off, she isn't going to get inside the terminal easily as the aircraft may have been parked up around 1mile from the terminal building on a remote stand - and she would probably have been arrested for being a terrorist for being in the restricted zone without a hi-viz jacket and ID!

[One Outsider]

Well put, Getoutofmygalley.

When trying to appear clever at the expense of someone else, it helps to actually know what one is talking about, otherwise one just looks like someone trying to appear clever at the expense of someone else.

[Flight Detent]

...Errr..what was the problem, I understand she was woken by the cleaning crew, they would have had access thru one of the rear doors, to easy!

I think her problems were related to the security people keeping her 'secured' whilst they figured out what was going on!

Cheers...FD...:\

[onetrack]

The problem was.. not that she was physically locked in the plane, and unable to open a door... but that she was detained, on the plane, by over-zealous security staff, who gave her a hard time, and treated her like a plane hijacker.
I think I'd be talking to my lawyers, too, if some security goons in uniforms, with attitudes straight out of Nazi Germany, treated me like a criminal, when I was guilty only of falling asleep on a plane.

[mcgoo]

Must be a deep sleep if she can sleep through landing and everyone else getting their bags and getting off, must be more to it.

[kenhughes]

mcgoo - agreed. Especially as Trans-States Airlines, who operate the flight on behalf of United, use Embraer ERJ-145s on that route - at 50 seats, not the biggest aircraft you can fly in.

Reference to the debate about arming doors and slides - the 145 has a drop-down door complete with airstairs, so a moot point.

As for security - they are damned if they do and damned if they don't!

What would have been the outcry if they had just escorted the lady to the terminal and sent her on her way, then some device had later been found on the aircraft?

After all, passengers don't usually get left on parked-up aircraft - er, apart from the blind lady a week ago, who was forgotten after being asked to remain seated until the other passengers had disembarked. That was United too - but would have been a main-line A320, not a small feeder.

[onetrack]

Well, it was the wee small hours, when people normally sleep soundest. I'd hazard a guess some booze helped. There definitely is some negligence on the cabin crews behalf, to obviously not do a thorough check of the plane, before leaving.

However .. she HAS also employed the biggest Rottweiler, in-your-face, attorney... who specialises in cases where he can get maximum media exposure. I'd say there'll be a quiet out-of-court settlement, which will also involve a new Beemer for Fiegler, the attorney... :rolleyes:

http://i49.tinypic.com/2eey7fm.jpg

"The plane landed around 12:30 a.m. but McGuire said she woke up around 4 a.m. with no flight crew attempting to wake her. She wasn’t aware that the cleaning crew had discovered her sleeping and called authorities. After pacing the airplane for 15 minutes, she was met by a TSA agent and two police officers who questioned her for 10 minutes (and who requested to sight MGuire's ID). She’s now suing Trans State Airlines, operators of the United Express flight, for “$25,000 and $75,000, on claims of negligence, infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and breach of contract.”

[kenhughes]

Absolutely. The lawyers will be the ones who win the most on this one.

After all, this is America. The land of the buy one, get one free!

[aviatordom]

Fair play to her, it still baffles me how she was left un-noticed by anyone, but as we now know its an ERJ-145, where the stairs are integrated into the door, she would have seen that she could have got off the aircraft if she opened the door, which the crew tell you how to do, its even on a piece of card!

Even if it was a huge aircraft, such as a B777, she could have opened the door and realised that yes, the slide may not deploy even with her pulling on a toggle, but it would have then occured to her to leave it open to attract the attention of ground workers.

The Airline left her there, that's true, but she's turning the whole thing into something much bigger by probably purposely not making any effort to get out. If she really felt so distressed she would have bothered to try and do something, its not hard to work out, its common sense.

[Avman]

Have you ever witnessed how eager CC are to get off their a/c in the U.S.?
The issue of getting out is irrelevant. She should never have been left there in the first place. Bottom line: CC negligence, period. No blame on TSA or police as they obviously had to do their job and establish WTF was going on. 100% CC's (and thus the airline's) fault. Next case please.

[eglnyt]

she's turning the whole thing into something much bigger by probably purposely not making any effort to get out. If she really felt so distressed she would have bothered to try and do something, its not hard to work out, its common sense

Actually it would probably have been much bigger if she had tried to get out. Airside can be a dangerous place to wander around for those unfamiliar with it and if security got as upset as they did to find her on the plane just imagine what they might have done if she had been wandering around outside.

[aviatordom]

I didn't say that she should have jumped out and wandered around the apron, if it was a bigger aircraft, she could have left the door open and remained on-board, and could have stood right near the exit attracting even more attention.

Tell me, does that look more suspicious to you rather than just sitting on-board with all doors shut waiting for someone to come?

I think not.

[PaperTiger]

She didn't try to get out because she was asleep (i.e. "tired and emotional") until roused by the cleaners. Then she wasn't allowed to leave.

RTF article.

[Bealzebub]

I hope she wins.

what an astonishing lapse of security!

[flash8]

She must be thanking her lucky stars she wasn't of a certain ethnic persuasion!

Thinks might have turned a whole lot nastier!

[Northbeach]

"Have you ever witnessed how eager CC are to get off their a/c in the U.S.?
The issue of getting out is irrelevant. She should never have been left there in the first place. Bottom line: CC negligence, period. No blame on TSA or police as they obviously had to do their job and establish WTF was going on. 100% CC's (and thus the airline's) fault. Next case please."

As usual we don't have all the facts. However with what has been presented it does appear CC negligence. It doesn't matter what we think of the womman herself, a crew does not leave a passenger alone in the jet after arriving at the destination-period.

The exception is whether or not this was a set up and intentional where woman hid from the CC. That is unlikely but not beyond the realm of possibility.

Another thing that is "different" about flying for a living is that most of the time it is so routine. The same process over and over. However, when things go badly and all it takes is an introduction of some seemingly insignificant event or item, and the flight can go terribly wrong. Children flying alone left on jets after they should have gotten off ending up in cities they were never supposed to be in, people turning right instead of left as they disembark and falling out of a door left open for catering and ventalation, shipping things not allowed on aircraft starting a self sustaining cargo fire.................

SOPs, training and policy; much of it is developed because somewhere, sometime somebody got hurt or something was destroyed. It is often said flying regulations are written in blood. When we do not follow procedures we "poke at the tiger through the cage bars with a stick". Now what do you suppose the crew is going to tell their manager(s) to explain how this person was left on the jet? I would be very interested in thier side of the story!

[Pugilistic Animus]

A few bucks for her troubles...considering the cost of flight; it will just be a drop in the ocean...airlines have no emotions