Passengers win turbulence lawsuit

[chperplt]

Anyone know when this happened??? What exactly did the captain do, or not do, that the FAA took his certificate?



DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- A jury has awarded three Spirit Airlines passengers $5,000 each for anguish they suffered when one of the company's jets took a sudden plunge in severe turbulence.

The decision Wednesday disappointed the passengers, Carolyn and William Conroy, and Ronald Patterson. Patterson said he turned down $50,000 from the airline to settle the case.

A spokeswoman for the Florida-based airline said Thursday the company could not comment because of other pending litigation related to the flight.

The aircraft shook and plunged 4,000 feet during a January 30, 2000, flight from Fort Myers, Florida, to Detroit.

The Federal Aviation Administration suspended the pilot's license after the incident and he resigned.

Spirit's lawyers said turbulence caused the incident. The passengers' lawyer said the pilot was not watching what he was doing.

The incident prompted more than two dozen lawsuits. Many have been settled.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

you know i got to give my .02 about Spirit.

I had just gotten off a charter flight in ORL and had to take a flight to ORD out of MCO. Spirit was the carrier i was flying that day. I still had my uniform on, my id. Looked semi proffesional i guess. Anyways, somewhere over Indiana i got up to use the Lav. The smoke detector had been going off for about 5 minutes and the flight attendents didn't seem to give a **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**.

anyways, after being in the lav for a few minutes i got a bang on the door. apparently the flightattendents thought i was smoking in the bathroom. Some girl had gone into the lav accross from me like 5 minutes earlier, lit one up and then bolted. The detector had been going off for quite some time before i even entered the lavs in the back.

That just pissed me off cause they yelled at me. I don't even smoke.

So I get my bags at ORD, sitting out side the terminal wiating for my ride and the captain comes up to me and was like, you were smoking on my airplane. That just pissssed me off. Why would another pilot who knows FAR's and **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** do that? I got a bad taste in my mouth from that one. Ill never fly them again. BASTARDS!

 

[ceo_of_the_sofa]

mmk, why did the feds pull the guy's ticket? lack of turbulance avoidance? WTF?

 

[doubtful]

i think this was the incident where the plane actually stalled in the climb. the turbulence was actually the stall recovery!

Here is the CNN version

 

[KingAirer]

OHH! Thats what it was....
"All of a sudden the stewardess with the beverage cart started running down the aisle and another stewardess came out of the cockpit and ran by me. And according to a lady behind me, the stewardess who came out of the cockpit said that the engines had stalled."

The engines stalled...Duh

CNNs new aviation expert..."Steve" The automechanic.

 

[varicam]

Loved this exerpt from the CNN report:

"Spirit Airlines has called in the Federal Aviation Administration to help investigate the incident."

LOL!! Like the FAA waited to be "called in" by Spirit!

 

[trainerjet]

Whether or not "Steve the automechanic" had his expert facts straight, that's pretty much what happened. They knowingly attempted to climb to an altitude above what their weight would allow.

The result was the loss of altitude from somewhere above 310 down to 4000 feet.