A Delta flight attendant aboard the plane that flipped upside down on a Toronto runway in February is going after the airline for a staggering $75 million, accusing it of “recklessness” and “gross negligence.”
Delta “cut corners on safety by rushing pilots through training programs and knowingly putting passengers at risk with inexperienced flight crew,” alleged Detroit’s Vanessa Miles in a federal lawsuit filed Monday in the Eastern District of Michigan.
As many as 21 passengers on a flight from Minneapolis were injured when the aircraft went belly up on the tarmac at the Toronto Pearson International Airport on Feb. 17.
Miles said was hanging upside down unconscious in the inverted plane.
By the time she came around, she was soaked in jet fuel and surrounded by smoke.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and fell to the ceiling of the inverted aircraft, the lawsuit states.
When she exited the aircraft, she alleges she fell more than six feet to the ground as the emergency slides had not deployed.
Two minutes later, the plane burst into flames.
By then, all 80 people on board had managed to make it off the aircraft.
Miles suffered a traumatic brain injury and fractured shoulder.
The plane descended too quickly, causing the landing gear to collapse when it touched down, investigators from Canada’s Transportation Safety Board revealed in March.
The suit alleges Delta, and subsidiary Endeavor Air, also failed to properly train flight crew on emergency evacuation procedures, adding to the chaos.
A Delta spokesperson said the airline declined to comment on pending litigation and continued to fully support the ongoing investigation by Canadian federal authorities.
