Woman Sues Airline Over Flight Turbulence
from the acts-of-god dept
We recently wrote about a woman suing a movie theater and movie producers because she felt the trailer for the film was misleading concerning the content of the actual movie. It seems that bizarre lawsuits aren't that uncommon these days. btr1701 alerts us to a case in which a woman sued Continental Airlines because her flight was too turbulent. No one seems to be showing the actual filing (Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: lawsuits, turbulence
Companies: continental airlines
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
A rough time in court
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A rough time in court
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
right this way
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This case
I hope her lawyer advised her to keep her seatbelt fastened for the journey!
Hey, I wonder if she can say the legal wranglings were turbulent and she now has post-traumatic stress disorder and can now no longer sue people and therefore sue the US government for not having adequate safeguards against people suing for retarded reasons..........
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
And I'm still waiting for how an "economic framework" analyzes anything. -- By the way, Mike, yours above is an example of "bafflegab", just buzzwords strung together to look impressive, while any actual attempt to understand baffles.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
The beauty of the internet is that participation isn't mandatory. You neither have to read nor comment on content that you aren't interested in.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
Such a easy to understand and profound statement that totally eludes your average troll!
+1 insightful, and 1,000 Internets to you sir.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
"just...words strung together to look impressive, while any actual attempt to understand baffles."
A good assessment of your own post, well done.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
It doesn't. You don't expect hammers to suddenly get up and to build houses on their own do you? But you can use hammers to build houses yourself, though. Big difference here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What is this, the legalistic weenies blog?
Did anyone get the license plate of the irony that just ran me over?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Roger Murdock: Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Victor Basta: Request vector, over.
Captain Oveur: What?
Tower voice: Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.
Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice: Over.
Captain Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: Roger, over!
Roger Murdock: What?
Captain Oveur: Huh?
Victor Basta: Who? "
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
At first I figured NFW this had any merit.... then I read this.
"Colleen O'Neal of Lubbock, Texas, was flying from College Station to Houston on Oct. 29, 2009, when the flight hit extreme turbulence just minutes after takeoff, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Harris County district court. Weather reports at the time of departure showed a threat of "tornados, wind shear, and dangerously strong winds with rotating and intense thunderstorms.""
It seems like the flight should have been grounded with that much unstable air in the area. A 20 min flight turned into over 2 hours with the flight dropping altitude over and over.
While I think the PTSD and it ruined my entire life seems to be over the top, the fact she waited 2 years to file also raises some serious questions.
She also names Colgan Air which, IIRC, was the subject of a "Frontline" investigation about how the minicarrier was cutting all sorts of corners and there was much pressure to move the planes at all costs. While the plane has Continental on the side, in past problems Continental has always said that Colgan was ultimately responsible in crash investigations etc etc.
Something bad happened, but the "cha-ching" sue for everything including the kitchen sink type of case is not helping.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
We have seen tons of crashes caused by windsheer and microbursts etc etc... a 20 min flight becoming a 2 hour nightmare isn't supposed to happen.
While she might have some sort of case, I think its over the top.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
On the funny side....
I'm getting a mental picture of some young couple in the John trying to join the mile high club when all hell breaks loose.... moments later they emerge beat all to hell, and as blue as a smurf.......
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: That Anonymous Coward
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well
As a side note the fact that I now know that she is happy to obtain counsel for what was a rough/bad flight which she was fortunate enough to walk away from only gives me additional cause as to why I would want her working for me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
So because my idiot friend once managed to run across a busy 12 lane highway without becoming a hood ornament, it follows that his decision to play in 120 kph traffic was the correct one? Right...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
This woman must have going through constant turbulence in her brain..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And how many of them will the airline's lawyers parade before the court, to say that the flight wasn't that bad, nobody else had these problems she supposedly has, and she was acting just fine at the time.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If this actually goes anywhere, there might be others come out of the woodwork, but...if she has historical medical data that supports her case and no one else does, there may be no other cases come forward.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Link To Court Documents....THUS FAR
It took some finangling. Mike, Please Post this in the original post please? PRETTY PLEASE?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vRRe0cRk-9K5vT0_zJLvWQE7yiBF74AGQsKidJGcD4s/edit?hl=e n_US
Once more just for good measure.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Link To Court Documents....THUS FAR
She intended...
I intent to win the lotto and be as rich as Warren Buffet, do I get to sue?
I withdraw my earlier support that she might have had any case. This is over the top at its finest the only thing more ironic is that she is in charge of managing emergencies, but finding herself in one damaged her for life.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I intended to be the smartest man in the world, but the stupidity of this lawsuit lowered my IQ by at least 10 points.
Can I now sue her?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Where's the beef? (in other words...where's the story?)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Heh. There was a news article last week of a family calling 911 after getting lost in a corn maze. (and all this time I thought that was the POINT of a corn maze, go figure)
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/10/familys-corn-maze-fun-ends-in-911-rescue/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
First, I've never seen a cornfield so dense that you couldn't just push through the stalks. Second, they forgot the universal maze solution of putting one hand on the "wall" and then just keep following it, even through dead ends. It might take a while, but unless you've managed to get into an area that goes in a loop and you pick the inside wall to follow (which should be fairly obvious), you'll eventually come to either the entrance or exit.
Of course the article says that the maze has maps and signs, so I don't know how they managed to get lost in the first place.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Albuquerque Lawyers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
unbelievable
fucking americans.
never cease to amaze.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
traumatized
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
update?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]