This is why people hate lawyers.
A man scaled an 8-foot airport perimeter fence topped with barbed wire, entered Denver’s remote airfield area, and stood on the runway in front of a Frontier jet taking off for Los Angeles. He was ingested into the plane’s engine, in what was ruled a suicide.
The engine caught fire, and a lawyer is now suing the airport owner for “more than $10 million” because some passengers inhaled smoke while evacuating the aircraft. The airline got everyone off the plane to safety, but they’re also suing the city and county because some passengers were injured going down the slide.
Attorney Andres Pereira with DJC Law said his clients expected safe travel but instead experienced a “preventable aviation incident” that left them with physical and psychological injuries.
“I have three clients right now who were sitting in a row right next to the engine, and they actually saw portions of the individual’s body go through the engine, which you can imagine must be a very traumatic experience,” Pereira said. “As soon as that occurred, of course, everybody on the aircraft, my clients included, they all thought they were going to die.”
Their theory for liability is “multiple failures in the design, maintenance, monitoring, and operation of the airport’s perimeter security and intrusion-detection systems” and that the city should have been aware of the breach and notified air traffic control earlier so that the plane wouldn’t have tried to take off. Airport motion detectors picked up deer at the same time he went over the fence.
I guess this is more plausible than when a man ran onto the runway in Salt Lake City, climbed into a Delta engine and died, and then his family demanded $300,000 because first responders should have communicated better amongst themselves in order to have stopped him on time.
I guess we’re really responsible for not telling someone that they shouldn’t go through an emergency exit onto the airfield, strip naked, and crawl into an aircraft engine. It is someone else’s fault that there are consequences for doing so – other than the perpetrator.
The man got onto the airfield because he’s a criminal. He had 20 prior arrests, including for attempted murder. His most recent arrest was just a month ago. And he killed himself.
He is the one responsible for what happened. And if anyone would have a justifiable claim it would be Frontier’s insurers, not the passengers ‘because they had to witness it’.
Holding the wrong party responsible is why we have instructions that say not to iron clothes while wearing them.
In 1984 a California man was tossing his toddler up and down in his living room. The kid loved it, and the father went higher and higher. Until the kid’s head hit the ceiling fan. Which was on. And the man sued the ceiling fan manufacturer for failing to warn him that this might be dangerous. This wasn’t the only man to sue over failure to warn after a ceiling fan injury.
So I can almost understand warnings like “this motorcycle contains no edible parts” and cartons of eggs that warn “this product may contain eggs” (or jars of peanut butter that flag, “may contain nuts or nut products”). It’s because of lawyers like this one.
I have to think though that insisting butane lighters warn “flame may cause fire” or people who need to be told “this electric drill is not intended for dental use” tell us that something is wrong with our society. Shouldn’t we really rethink the whole idea of responsibility?
Then again, when a U.S. Senator, former Governor and candidate for President of the United States actually does iron his shirts while wearing them what chance to the rest of us have?
The narrative arc of societal decline will be complete when the city and county of Denver settle and taxpayers are forced to pony up.
Why not? At least the lawyers get paid. It’s a shame the taxpayers would ultimately be the ones paying. Regardless, yeah, we, the people, in the aggregate, ironically, have the deepest pockets. More likely, it’s a battle over insurance money; oh, to be an underwriter… how’s Lloyd’s of London feel about all this then? (They’re still probably dealing with Hormuz, aren’t they… eh, add it to the pile!)
This has to be a HUGE BLANTANT exercise in the MISUSE of the AMERICAN Justice system. As an Aviator and AME – Aviation Medical Examiner – this has to be 100% Insane to file this type of lawsuit – I hope this Lawfirm LOOSES their shirts on this one – and that the Judge hands them a LOSS of their Bar License – this is CRAZY
Well, the slip and fall lawyers are very quick on the draw on this one! Just throwing the excrement at the court house wall in the hopes of making an undeserved payday. It’s absurd; some nutter decides to test out Darwinism, learns it’s legit, and leaves a mess. Why should Frontier have to pay?
Um, doctor Jon. I know they don’t teach spelling in medical school, but perhaps you should check yours. “Looses?”
@Stephen Morrissey — “Doctor” Jon should know that there are creams for hemorrhoids… yikes.
The lunacy never ceases to amaze. Does someone sue the state because some idiot fails to look both ways before stepping into traffic…?????
Given Frontier’s typical customer base this is no surprise. When they should be lucky that the pilot was able to control the airplane. The plane could have skid of the runway killing all onboard. Can only hope a sane judge throws this out and Frontier refuses an out of court settlement.
Is it too late to sue Spirit? Because they allowed a handful of people onboard who ended up fighting with each other and I was forced to see it while browsing YouTube last week. Very traumatic.
Another ambulance chaser trying to get a settlement. Where’s the negligence when the perp scaled an 8 foot fence with barbed wire???
I was once a passenger landing at a rural airport in the Philippines and they had a bunch of cows and goats grazing on weeds in the runway! These animals just nonchalantly moved out of the way as my plane descended to land. I can see negligence in this situation but maybe their legal system works differently…
And this why we hate personal injury attorneys.
“One call, that’s all!” There’s a law firm in Colorado that “chases” aviation lawsuits. Whatcha bet they are involved. Hopefully a sane judge (that’s gonna be debatable in CO!) will throw this frivolous suit out.
Again, were the judges who let this miscreant out in the past also named as defendants? I look forward to the discovery process…
@George Romey — “typical customer base”… *facepalm* You simply cannot resist punching down, can you? It’d be same whether F9, AA, or BA…
Denver to LAX
on Frontier Airlines
Guess who the passengers are?
And you are surprised they are suing.
Enlighten me. Who are “the passengers?” Be specific.
It’ll be interesting to see if any of the people filing these and future frivolous lawsuits against DIA (DEN) and the City are also those who ignored crew instructions and evacuated the aircraft with their carryon luggage.
I agree with 1990’s response to Mr. Romey: given an unscrupulous and attention-grabbing attorney, litigation wouldn’t be limited just to F9’s “typical customer case.” You can find some pretty silly lawsuits that have been filed over the years against airports and airlines by passengers of full-service carriers, not just LLCs and ULLCs.
@1990 Decent people would feel lucky to be alive. But apparently you’re with the type that would sue an airline after a pilot used all his skill to save your sad life.
@George Romey — No. This has nothing to do with decency, or lack thereof. Folks who fly American Airlines, have had issues, over the years, too, and some sue that airline as well. A few ‘win,’ a few ‘lose,’ a lot ‘settle.’ It has nothing to do with my life or your life, or our relative happiness or sadness.
I worked at Newark Airport and blew the whistle about one of the of gaping holes in their security. Managers and their friends and families would board flights bypassing TSA security.
https://youtu.be/xxnBJpKI_BU
If this person wants to sue anybody, it should be the parents of the idiot that scaled the fence to walk in front of an airplane. That’s what I say.
@Claire — This is why a ‘court of law’ is not a ‘court of public opinion,’ because, no, the parents of a 40-something suicidal man are not directly, financially responsible for the misdeeds of their adult son, however cathartic it may feel to blame them. In another era, we’d be ‘burning the witch’ on that same emotional, rush-to-judgment basis. We’re supposed to be better than that. Apparently, not.
Peanuts aren’t nuts! They are legumes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_nut_allergy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_allergy
Some people do have serious peanut allergies, some people do have serious nut allergies, and some people are allergic to both.
Sometimes food machinery is used for both nuts and peanuts, in which case allergy labeling is *very* important.
No, lawyers are not suing anyone. Their clients are.
We are lucky the guy easily scaling the fence was all about self destruction instead of like the guy on the MA highway, or wasn’t carrying a LAW.
This suit is Frontier-level all the way through.
Frontier-level passenger and Frontier-level lawyer lol.
Question: If the suit is successful and it puts Frontier in bankruptcy, can the rest of Frontier’s passengers sue the plaintiff for the increase in fares which came about as a result of plaintiff’s suit?
Guess there were no ambulances to chase.
Lemme guys it’s these 3 a$$hats
A father and his two sons on a flight to Los Angeles thought they were “going to die” when their Frontier jet struck a pedestrian on the runway — as they described the grisly ordeal.
Nebraskan John Anthens, 56, thought he and his two sons, Jacob, 30, and Levi, 19, weren’t going to make in the seconds after the unidentified person got sucked into their plane’s engine Friday night at Denver International Airport.
“In 1984 a California man was tossing his toddler up and down in his living room. The kid loved it, and the father went higher and higher. Until the kid’s head hit the ceiling fan. Which was on. And the man sued the ceiling fan manufacturer for failing to warn him that this might be dangerous. This wasn’t the only man to sue over failure to warn after a ceiling fan injury.”
I call BS on this anecdote. Sounds completely made up like most so-called “frivolous” lawsuit urban legends. The idea of lawsuit frivolity being “out of control” was manufactured by corporations to shift the narrative away from the idea of them having to take responsibility for their negligence. It never has been a real problem (meritless claims are routinely thrown out early on) and yet people bought this crap, and still do to this day. Your “citation” for this obvious false anecdote is of unbelievably low quality and calls into question your credibility in general. I would bet all my money that this lawsuit either doesn’t exist or never amounted to anything whatsoever.
Do you think the pax even saw him? did they see if he had jeans or ta tack Suit on ? really he was sucked in by a jet at night
Who looks out the window really when it is that dark down at the runway
“All the extravagance and incompetence of our present Government is due, in the main, to lawyers, and, in part at least, to good ones. They are responsible for nine-tenths of the useless and vicious laws that now clutter the statute-books, and for all the evils that go with the vain attempt to enforce them. Every Federal judge is a lawyer. So are most Congressmen. Every invasion of the plain rights of the citizens has a lawyer behind it. If all lawyers were hanged tomorrow, and their bones sold to a mah jong factory, we’d be freer and safer, and our taxes would be reduced by almost a half.”
—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), “Breathing Space”, The Baltimore Evening Sun, 1924-08-04.
This lawyer is a scumbag, and so are the idiots who hired him.
Welcome to the US Court Casino, no doubt this lawyer will net a six figure fee and the clients will get a free snack item at DIA
Thank you for the common sense perspective. I dearly hope that this lawsuit fails.
How does any passenger that signed onto this money grab attempt sleep at night? Absolute soulless lunacy to all involved here
This ambulance chaser should be arrested for filing this lawsuit. Another money grab.
If you want to stop these types of frivolous lawsuits, write your legislators and change the laws. Make it so that the lawyer filing the suit is on the hook for the opposing councils fees, should they lose the case. You’ll never see another one filed. Right now there’s no penalty for filing these, just the attorneys time. Change that and force them to pay up when they lose and don’t settle! Go to trial. Just my thoughts here.
As tragic as this is and as traumatic for passengers, especially those exiting on the starboard side, suicides committed by aviation are extremely rare. The lawyer filing the law suit might consider looking at AMTRAK, BNSF and Union Pacific…they average somewhere around 300 suicides a year on their tracks.
There is a special place in hell for these people and those that support them.
How do you morons not realize the airport is directly responsible for keeping pedestrians off their runway? They failed. Their customers could have been seriously harmed, killed, blown up, etc etc etc. Luckily they weren’t (and that is largely due to luck, not “pilot skill”.. they hadn’t left the ground yet. Maybe “driver skill). If Frontier had better security at the time, that risk of blow up would’ve fallen dramatically. I tend to fly Delta, where I have far less concerns about being blown up, because they take their responsibilities a bit more seriously.
Yet another prime example of why we need massive tort reform in this country to stop the sleazebag trial lawyers from legally committing financial rape on all of us.
“First thing we do is kill all the lawyers.”
Sue…grass, Frontier is not responsible for airport security. The airport is. Try again.
Attorney Andres Pereira with DJC Law said his clients expected safe travel but instead experienced a “preventable aviation incident” that left them with physical and psychological injuries.
Lawyers.
I empathize with those who saw this man become ingested into the engine. No doubt that was horrifying and they may have difficulty and need therapy. However, the blessing here is the pilots and crew did an amazing job in handling this emergency.
Ultimately, I hope the lawsuits fail because they are frivolous .