Newsstand - Lawsuit: Pax Body Found in AA Lav by Cleaners

Lawsuit: Body Found in Jet Bathroom

By Associated Press
April 12, 2007, 10:00 AM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS -- An airline passenger died in the restroom during a flight and wasn't found until the cleaning crew boarded the plane after it landed, a federal lawsuit contends.

The passenger, Taisuke Matsuo, 66, apparently had a heart attack on an American Airlines flight from Tokyo to Chicago during the first leg of a trip home to Indianapolis, according to the lawsuit filed Monday by his wife, Carolyn D. Watts.

http://tinyurl.com/2j8j5v

hmm. a lav that wasn't used on an intl flight? that is amazing :eek: :eek:

I think it is bad form to not have discovered the pax dead on arrival (no pun intended) with a bathroom check at the gate or prior to landing, but I doubt it would have saved his life since no one knows how long he was in the bathroom (except the seatmate who didn't think it was strange that he didn't come back for so long, sue that person if anything!). He could have just as easily died in his seat and people would have thought he was just sleeping and leave him undisturbed. I wonder what the outcome of the lawsuit will be (other than a PR nightmare).

Airlines don't generally do a passenger count before landing or to count heads as they deplane.

Also, airlines aren't consistent in locking or clearing the lavs prior to landing. At most airline crews might knock on a locked lav door to see if someone locked it from inside and is still inside or otherwise presume that flight crew manually locked it from outside and therefore no one is inside.

I really don't know what the monetary damages are from this situation. A person is dead and unless it can be shown that the airline was non-responsive to a passenger screaming for medical attention that was both available on board and would work to save the passengers life I don't see a lot of material damage here. This lawsuit seems like someone just trying to get money for an unfortunate incident for which there is no real liability.

Or is it seat-induced DVT?

(except the seatmate who didn't think it was strange that he didn't come back for so long, sue that person if anything!).

seeing as this was an international flight (and let's presume for argument's sake that it wasn't a full flight), the seatmate could have assumed that the passenger moved elsewhere presumably to find a better seating arrangement. i've seen this happen frequently on international long-haul flights.

I've flown enough internationally to understand how it could have been missed, especially with FAs rushing around overlapping in their tasks (e.g. securing lavs). It would all be very distressing for the family I'm sure but I do wonder what they would want to achieve (other than money) from a lawsuit.

Ironic to recall the suggestion after the recent BA "corpse moved to F" situation to place the deceased upright in a lav. Imagine the headlines and the potential lawsuit if the employees had actually done that. @:-)

I can't help but think of that scene from Clerks...

I think think this was very bad. Sorry for this families loss.

...This lawsuit seems like someone just trying to get money for an unfortunate incident for which there is no real liability.
...

Unless there is something more to this story than indicated in the article, the lawsuit looks hopeless. I don't see how the plaintiffs could prove that but for the airline's negligence (which itself is very doubtful), the decedent would have survived.

I can't imagine how the airline can be held liable for the pax dying in the lav. The fact that he (the pax) didn't deplane is understandable, since he had died, the next team of airline employees to inspect the entire plane would be the cleaners, which is the work group that found the deceased pax.

It is absurd to blame this on the FA's.

Does anyone know of any airline that requires FA's to supervises or monitors the pax usage or turnover of lav usage.

EGADS! people sue for just about anything these days.

RC

One interesting fact here is that the decedent was a Japanese national. I wonder if he's turning in his grave over this lawsuit, the filing of which would seem highly improbable in Japan.

Maybe he went to the bathroom after landing while other passengers were deplaning?