A few weeks ago, United Airlines made headlines around the world after a terrible engine failure. Well, a class action lawsuit has now been filed in connection with the incident.
The Basics of United 777 Engine Failure
On February 20, 2021, the UA328 from Denver to Honolulu suffered a major engine failure shortly after takeoff. The Boeing 777-200 had a total of 241 people on board, including 231 passengers and 10 crew.
The right engine caught fire just after takeoff, and debris fell from the sky in neighborhoods on the outskirts of Denver. Thanks to the pilots’ excellent work, the plane landed in Denver just under 20 minutes after taking off. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
VIDEO: United Boeing 777 # UA328 engine failure moments after the departure of Denver International Airport on February 20, 2021. The aircraft landed safely. 231 passengers; 10 crew members; 0 injuries. Work well done by the crew pic.twitter.com/LcJpGgwDdz
– AeroSkippah (@AeroSkippah) February 21, 2021
An interesting twist in the story is that the replacement aircraft that United used for these passengers was a 777-200 that suffered a very similar incident a few years ago.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its initial conclusions about this incident.
United faces class action for engine failure
A class action lawsuit was filed against United Airlines over the UA328 incident. You can find a brief account of the case here and the full process here. The author is trying to recover from negligence to inflict emotional suffering on his behalf and on all other passengers on board who have faced a similar situation.
The process comes down to this:
- United has a duty to inspect and maintain its aircraft using some level of caution
- It is argued that for something so catastrophic to happen, a breach of duty has been demonstrated
- The breach of United’s duty resulted in the imposition of serious emotional problems on passengers
- This emotional distress was entirely predictable and would not have occurred without the breach of United’s duty
To go into this in more detail, the claim is that United Airlines was negligent in failing to inspect the fan blades properly, especially since a similar incident happened a few years ago, and similar recommendations were made. According to the process:
Preliminary results from an NTSB investigation into this incident indicated that it appears that at least 1 fan blade of the engine tore in flight due to “metal fatigue” and, in the process, took at least 1 more fan blade with it, causing an “engine event not contained.”
It is possible to inspect the fan blades for metal fatigue using processes that include “fluorescent penetrant inspection” and “thermoacoustic imaging” and, in fact, NTBS ordered all planes using the same engine models to do so after the incident .
UNITED’s failure to ensure that what happened in 2018 does not happen again in 2021 is an impressive failure of reasonable security practices by any standard.
The suit alleges that, as a result of this negligence, passengers suffered serious emotional problems:
The Claimant, as well as, according to information and belief, the majority (if not all) of the passengers reasonably fear for their lives as a result of the staggering state of their plane, starting at more than 2 miles in altitude and lasting approximately 18 minutes.
The Claimant, as well as, by information and belief, the majority (if not all) of the passengers, suffered physical symptoms as a result of this intense experience, including: nausea, tachycardia, tremors, shock symptoms and, after the flight, insomnia.
Result
A United Airlines 777 had a rather terrible engine failure and now the airline is facing a passenger lawsuit. I will be curious to see what comes out of this case (assuming that it will not be resolved out of court, in which case we may never find out).
I absolutely believe that this incident was terrifying for the passengers on board. I flew millions of miles and tried some things, but that would still have scared me.
That said, I’m obviously not a lawyer, so I’m not sure how much legal merit there is in this case. If the investigation reveals that this incident was similar to the one in 2018 and could have been prevented with proper fan blade inspections, then I think maybe they have a case? The question is what kind of dollar amount can you apply to the emotional distress that passengers have experienced.
What do you think of this United Airlines process? I would especially love to hear from lawyers.