"Delta Air Lines Passengers Filing Class Action Lawsuit Claiming They Must Receive 280 Million Won After Barely Surviving"

Delta Air Lines Offers 42 Million KRW per Passenger
First-Class Passenger Demands at Least 280 Million KRW

Lawsuits from passengers are continuing against the U.S. Delta Air Lines following a passenger plane overturn accident during landing at Toronto Airport in Canada.

On the 23rd (local time), according to the U.S. Washington Post (WP), Martijnus Lawrence, a passenger who was seated in first class at the time of the accident, filed a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines in the Georgia Federal Court on the 20th of this month, a few days after the accident. Among the 76 passengers on board the accident flight, Lawrence is the first to file a lawsuit. The next day, another passenger also filed a separate lawsuit, and WP reported that more lawsuits are expected to follow.

On the 18th (local time), a Delta Air Lines passenger plane was overturned at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

In the lawsuit, Lawrence claimed, "Delta Air Lines and its subsidiary Endeavor Air were negligent in failing to safely land the aircraft, causing damages," and argued, "According to the Montreal Convention, which governs compensation for air accidents, I should be compensated at least $200,000 (approximately 285 million KRW)."

Earlier, Delta Air Lines offered compensation of $30,000 (approximately 42 million KRW) per affected passenger. If all passengers accept this offer as is, the total amount Delta Air Lines would have to pay would reach about $2.3 million (approximately 3.3 billion KRW). At the time, Delta Air Lines explained, "There are no conditions attached to receiving the compensation," and "It does not affect passengers' other rights."

However, Lawrence is demanding an amount about seven times higher than the compensation offered by Delta Air Lines. He stated that he was trapped upside down, secured by a seatbelt inside the overturned plane, and barely escaped, but sustained injuries to his face, neck, back, and other parts of his body during the process. Andres Pereira, the lawyer handling Lawrence’s case, said, "We expect the number of passengers filing lawsuits to increase in the coming days or weeks."

On the 17th, at Toronto Airport, a passenger plane flight 4819 operated by Endeavor Air, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, carrying 76 passengers and 4 crew members departed from Minneapolis, USA, and overturned while landing on a runway partially covered with snow. At the time, the right wing struck the runway, causing the aircraft to overturn, and the impact caused a fire and explosion. Fortunately, due to rapid fire suppression and evacuation, there were no fatalities. Twenty-one people were injured and received treatment. Among them, three were seriously injured but were not reported to be in life-threatening condition.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.