Alaska Airline sued over plane's pressure loss

LOS ANGELES — Six passengers on an Alaska Airlines jet that suddenly lost pressure when a hole opened in its fuselage sued the airline and its baggage handlers Friday.

No one was seriously hurt when a 12-inch gash split the fuselage on a flight from Seattle to Burbank, Calif., Dec. 26. But James P. Kreindler, an attorney for the passengers, said in a statement that his clients' "lives are profoundly challenged by what they thought was their near-death experiences ... passengers were saying their last goodbyes to loved ones."

One legal expert said there are strict criteria for winning damages for emotional trauma. Plaintiffs must establish that the airline was negligent and that there was some physical injury or risk of injury. The Alaska passengers' lawsuit contends the passengers' hearing was damaged and that the airline and its contractor did not properly handle a collision before take-off between the plane and a baggage cart.

"Generally speaking, if the only damage one suffers is by watching some event unfold, you ordinarily are not able to get recovery for that," said Loyola Law School professor John Nockleby, a tort law expert.

The law firm representing the plaintiffs said it won damages from American Airlines over a 1995 incident in which passengers experienced 30 seconds of severe turbulence as their plane rose and fell repeatedly while over Minnesota.

The plaintiffs, including two Los Angeles residents, Mark Reveley and Emma Hellsten, and four others who live in Sweden, seek damages to be determined at trial. The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The incident occurred 20 minutes after the aircraft left Seattle. Oxygen masks dropped, and passengers reported a loud, popping sound, followed by a rushing noise one likened to "a leaf blower in your ear." Pilots descended suddenly from 26,000 feet, and returned the plane to Seattle.

Prior to take-off, a baggage handler had bumped the plane with his loading cart, apparently damaging the aircraft. The hole in the fuselage measured 12 inches by 6 inches, and was near the forward cargo door, about 4 feet below the cabin windows.

The mishap elevated tensions between Seattle-based Alaska Airlines and its unions. The airline had cut baggage and ramp service jobs earlier in 2005, and hired British-based Menzies Aviation to take up the work at Seattle-Tacoma airport.

The baggage handler whose cart collided with the plane worked for Menzies. Following the incident, union advocates suggested the problem was caused by poor work by the contractor. The passengers' lawyers raised the same issue in naming Menzies in the suit.