By Harriet Baskas, msnbc.com contributor
Australian-based Qantas Airways has awarded settlements of up to $400,000 to almost 150 passengers who were injured aboard an Airbus A330 airplane that nosedived twice on Oct. 7, 2008, reports the West Australian.
The flight was traveling from Singapore to Perth with 303 passengers onboard. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau determined that a stream of incorrect data messages caused the plane to plunge 690 feet in 23 seconds and, two minutes later, 400 feet in 15 seconds. Sixty of the passengers and some of the crew were not buckled into their seats when the plane nosedived.
U.S. aviation injury lawyer Floyd Wisner, who is representing 160 passengers and crew from the flight, told the West Australian that the plunge caused injuries that included psychological trauma, fractured vertebrae, broken bones and serious lacerations. At least one passenger suffered a brain injury.
?A payout like this is not unusual,? said Jeff Price, an associate professor of aviation at Metropolitan State College of Denver. ?As part of the contract for carriage, airlines have some responsibility to keep you safe during the flight. They cannot protect you from natural acts or acts of God, but for something that is mechanical, such as this, a payout is all but expected.?
Sixteen severely injured passengers, however, are readying a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against aircraft maker Airbus and aircraft technology company Northrop Grumman, which made the plane's data unit.
Qantas was not available to provide a comment to msnbc.com when contacted Friday morning.
Related stories:
ron paul 2012 zynga stock zynga stock sam houston state university sam houston state university bradley manning whoopi goldberg
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.