Woman sues Jetblue over Husband’s Death

By | December 31, 2006

The Associated Press reports that a woman has filed a wrongful death suit against Jetblue, claiming that an in-flight crew ignored her husband after he suffered a fatal heart attack during a flight nearly two years ago.

The timing of the claim seems rather suspicious to us, as the incident occurred on Febuary 16, 2005, on Flight 486 inbound to Boston’s Logan Airport. The widow claims that her husband went into cardiac distress and tried to alert the crew, but after they determined that he was unresponsive, they still fully deplaned the aircraft before providing any assistance, and only when that failed did they alert the emergency personnel at Logan. He was pronounced dead a short while later at the hospital.

The lawsuit accuses Jetblue of negligence. Jetblue has not yet issued a statement.

We tend to be a bit fond of Jetblue, but despite that, we are a bit skeptical about this story. We have been on aircraft with ill passengers and they are always deplaned first and emergency personnel are alerted. We cannot believe any group of people, regardless of their corporate affiliation, would allow this to happen.