NEW YORK – A lawsuit against Southwest Airlines has been filed by a passenger who was flying on last week’s flight 1380, in which an engine exploded and one person was killed.
The lawsuit claims that since the accident, t𝄹he passenger, Lilia Chavez, has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and other persona💦l injuries.
The lawsuit was fil💛ed Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern🔥 District of Pennsylvania.
Dallas-based Southwest has been under intense scrutiny in the 🧜days since a CFM56-7B engine on one of its Boeing 737-700 jets bleꩵw apart during an April 17 flight, shattering a plane window and flinging shrapnel.
Passenger Jennifer Rio💙rdan, one of 149 people aboard, was killed. The incident has raised concerns about the safe🔴ty of similar engines.
Regulaღtors at the N🌌ational Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
“Our focus remains on working with the NTSB to suppor🍸t their 🌸investigation,” Southwest said Friday. “We can’t comment on any pending litigation. The safety and security of our employees and customers is our highest priority at all times.”
Also named in the Thursday suit are France’s Safran SA, General Electric Aviation and CFM International, the manufacturers behind the engine that ꦦbroke apart. CFM is a transatlantic joint ventur🌠e co-owned by GE and Safran.
The suit claims that Southwest and the engine makers had “placed profits and business” over passenger safety and continued to operate the engine “even when there was confirmation that an unsafe condition existed.”
A Southwest flight in August 2016 with the same type of CFM56-7B engine made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, after a fan 🌞blade separated and debris ripped a holeꦇ above the left wing.
After the incident, European regulators gave airlines nine mont🌌hs to che🍌ck the engines. US regulators were still considering what to do after proposing some checks.
“Despite knowing of the dangerous condition of the subject aircraft’s engine, the defendants risked the lives of more than a hundred innoc𒀰ent passengers,” including Chavez, the filing reads.
A representative for GE di𒆙d not return a request for comment. Safran could not immediately be reached.
The incident marked the first fatality on a US commercial passe𓄧nger a💜irline since 2009.
Southwest shares cl🅘osed up 0.4 percent. They have lost 18.2 percent year to date.