Don't Fly American Airlines

Eric Wallhagen | February 25, 2008
"Struggling to breathe, American Airlines passenger Carine Desir asked for oxygen, but a flight attendant twice refused her request, the woman's cousin said."

Story here

This story is more than a little shocking...

Amy Austin | February 25, 2008
That has to have been the flight from hell... for all involved!

Anna Gregoline | February 25, 2008
I've seen this story elsewhere, but your link doesn't work for me.

Eric Wallhagen | February 25, 2008
Try that... It looks like they updated/changed the article from when I'd originally posted it. That may have been why the link was busted.

In the original, it sounded a lot more like negligence on the part of the airlines. (empty Oxygen tanks, broken defibrillator, unresponsive flight attendant, etc.) Of course after the airline did an investigation on itself, it found nothing wrong...

Aaron Shurtleff | February 25, 2008
I've seen a couple stories on this, and there are some very important details that are different between the two stories. It's hard to berate the airline before we know exactly what happened, I think. I know that, lately, it seems like the default opinion to take is the little-guy-good-big-company-bad, but let's see what this story looks like in a few days or a week and see what's what.

Anna Gregoline | February 25, 2008
Yeah, I can't automatically say this is the airline's fault - I've read several stories now and they conflict.

Amy Austin | February 26, 2008
I also read a few versions (since the link was broken for me as well, and Google obviously produced several different links), and I wasn't going to do any denouncing after reading it. Like I said, I'm sure it was the worst flight that anyone on that plane had ever experienced (can you imagine riding in first class with a dead woman under a blanket on the floor nearby???)... and it seems like something that could just as easily have happened on *any* airline or anywhere on terra firma, for that matter. *But*... it does also seem like the circumstances may have contributed to her level of anxiety (thus expediting her demise), and -- knowing what I do about tank oxygen and the similarly perishable nature of humans performing "routine" preventative maintenance on equipment that is so rarely used -- it isn't too hard to believe the cousin's version of it, either.

I'm betting that the doctor who declared her death (Joel Shulkin) and who "through his lawyer declined to comment" did so out of more than just "respect for the family". He probably wasn't all that shocked by her expiration, he may or may not have seen "fault" with the equipment (though his declining to comment would seem to me to indicate not), and I doubt that he wants to set himself up prematurely for a subpoena.

It will be interesting to see what an external investigation of it brings...

Scott Hardie | February 26, 2008
Sounds very sad to me, whether the airline was negligent or not.

Is anybody familiar with corporate liability law, or more specifically airline law? I would guess that normally, a company is not liable if one of its employees does not take action to save your life. For instance, if the same scene had played out at a Burger King and the teens behind the counter watched her die, that wouldn't make the BK corporation liable. But airlines are a special class of business with heavy regulation, since they take your life into their hands with every transaction. I wonder if the company is liable in the event that a flight attendant did nothing. Even if they are, I'm sure they're thoroughly insured against this kind of lawsuit ruining them.

Amy Austin | February 26, 2008
Yeah... at least you can make a call or ride an ambulance out of a BK...

In this day & age, there seems to be no telling and no end to the responsibilities able to be foisted upon or shirked by corporate entities -- I think I'd go gray and/or bald if I were in corporate law.