Passengers of Delta Flight 4819, which crash-landed upside down in Toronto this week, began filing lawsuits against the airline on Friday for injuries.
In a lawsuit filed in a Georgia federal court, passenger Marthinus Lourens of Texas claims he suffered "significant injuries to his head, neck, back, knees and face" as a result of the plane crash. He is seeking more than $200,000 in damages.
"Experiencing the crash and being suspended upside down by his seatbelt while drenched with jet fuel in a burning plane" caused "severe emotional distress and mental anguish," Lourens wrote.
In his complaint, Lourens accuses Delta Airlines and subsidiary Endeavor Air of failing to uphold their duty to provide safe flights. He also claims the crew “offered inadequate assistance and instructions or directions” during the evacuation.
Aviation experts praised the flight's crew for quickly and safely removing all passengers from the wrecked aircraft before emergency crews even arrived. Videos captured by passengers show them helping people off the plane onto a snowy tarmac.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CBS News the crew had "performed heroically but also as expected" given that "safety is embedded into our system."
Another suit from passenger Hannah Krebs dropped in federal court in Minneapolis on Friday morning. It also seeks compensation for “extreme bodily and mental injuries.”
Toronto law firm Rochon Genova says it has also been retained by certain passengers and their families over the crash-landing.
The suits come after Delta, the most profitable airline in the country, announced Thursday it will offer $30,000 to each person on board the flight. Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant said the compensation has “no strings attached and does not affect rights" of the passengers.
There were 76 passengers and four crew aboard the flight, which embarked from Minneapolis on Monday before making its crash-landing in Canada.
As it landed in Toronto, the plane skidded along the runway in flames before flipping over and coming to a halt upside down. Everyone aboard survived, and most walked away without severe injuries.
It remains unclear what exactly caused the incident, which is still under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
According to Delta, 21 passengers were taken to hospital. All were released by Thursday morning.
Lourens' attorney, Andres Pereira with DJC Law, said Lourens had safely returned to Texas on Thursday.
The accident was the fourth major air incident in North America in a three-week span. In January, a midair collision over D.C. killed 67 people.
Toronto's crash-landing was also followed by one in Arizona on Wednesday, in which two people lost their lives when their small planes collided. Each incident is unique and there's no known pattern linking them, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said Wednesday.
On Thursday, Delta Air Lines released a statement correcting what it called "disinformation in social media containing false and misleading assertions about flight crew Endeavor Air 4189."
The first officer joined Endeavor Air in January 2024 and completed her training in April. "Assertions that she failed training events are false," Delta said.
The company emphasized that "her flight experience exceeded the minimum requirements set by the U.S. federal regulations."
