A total of nine passengers aboard Asiana Flight 214 that crash-landed in San Francisco on July 6 are suing the airline for damages, but they’re also going after Boeing, claiming the company sells aircraft with different classes of safety. As expected, the suit says Asiana’s crew was negligent when the Boeing 777 they were flying got 30 knots slow on final approach and undershot the runway by more than 1,000 yards, slamming tail-first into a seawall before spinning laterally almost 360 degrees and sliding to a stop about even to where it should have touched down. But the nine suits, each identical but filed separately by lawyer Frank Pitre, also says the aircraft should have had more warning systems and Boeing should have offered better training to pilots. It also says the lap-and-shoulder harness seatbelts on business class seats should have been available to those riding farther back.
“I’m outraged that you’ve got safety that’s dependent on the type of ticket you buy,” Pitre told Bay-area media after filing the suit Thursday. Many of the more than 180 people injured suffered spinal and whiplash-type injuries from being flung into the seats ahead of them. Reports suggest those with the shoulder restraints didn’t suffer the same fate. Pitre is looking for financial compensation and punitive damages in the suits. Three people died as a result of the mishap. Two were killed in the crash and one was run over by at least one fire truck.
