Third SWA passenger files suit in MDW runway over run incident...

[FN FAL]

CHICAGO -- A woman who says she was injured when a Southwest Airlines jet slid off the end of a runway at Midway International Airport in a snowstorm earlier this month sued the airline and the city on Friday.


The lawsuit claims the Dallas-based airline was careless and negligent in landing the plane on the snowy runway on Dec. 8, causing Bernice James, of Chicago, to suffer "severe fear and terror, emotional distress" and physical injuries, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Cook County Circuit Court.


James' lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, also contends the city of Chicago failed to properly inspect the runway and should have closed Midway because of "unsafe and adverse conditions."


Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Paula Berg declined comment Friday. Jennifer Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the city's legal department, said she had not seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment.


Earlier this week, two other passengers aboard the Baltimore-to-Chicago flight filed a lawsuit against Southwest, the city and Chicago-based Boeing Co.


The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, which killed 6-year-old Joshua Woods of Leroy, Ind. He was inside a car crushed by the plane when it skidded off the end of a runway, through a fence and into the street.


His family's attorney, Ronald Stearney Jr., said Friday he intends to file a lawsuit but would not say when.

 

[JohnE]

Very sad. Obviously the family of the 6 year old child deserves money. It is insulting to this family and the pilots to have these 3 ambulance chasers glomming onto this. One day when I am retired, I would like to sit on some civil juries and give payback to these greedy leach lawyers. Unfortunately our society is run by them (congress, etc).

One day in the near future as we see Asia become what we were in the hey-day, we will ask why it is so much cheaper to do business elsewhere. "Destroy all lawyers" as they say...

 

[aeronautic1]

Actually, the quote goes...

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." The character to whom Shakespeare ascribes this horrible judgment on the legal profession is one Dick the Butcher, a rebel leader in Jack Cade's peasant rebellion. Ignorant and uncouth, the Butcher seems an unlikely hero for the law students and other cultivated professionals who attend the Shakespeare Festival. But Shakespeare used Dick's murderous rallying cry to give voice to a utopian temptation as old as the law itself, a temptation to which few are completely immune: the dream of a world unencumbered by the need for law. This ancient dream seduces us with the promise to liberate our lives and energize our relationships, letting the spirit of humanity take the place of the law's dead letter. "How happy we could be," this dream sings to us, "if only we did not have these irksome specialists around, spouting their arcane lore and enforcing their dusty demands!" It is not just students who are tempted by this lawless siren's song. It also affects the corporate world's perception of the legal profession. Dick the Butcher's view presents law as nothing but constraint, and lawyers as little more than impediments to action, sand in the corporate gears.

 

[Bongo]

severe fear and terror, emotional distress

You can't sue for this. Oh wait, this is the States...sorry.

he city of Chicago failed to properly inspect the runway and should have closed Midway because of "unsafe and adverse conditions.

This is a very vague statement. There is no way to quantify this statement. What is severe and adverse to the general public during an introductary flight is far, far different from someone who has upwards of 5000 hours and has flown for the last 20 years.