Last week, a plane, Delta Connection Flight 4819, crashed onto the tarmac at a Toronto airport and flipped over. Marthinus Lourens was left hanging upside down from his seatbelt.
Lourens suddenly found himself falling towards the ceiling of the plane, which was now directly above him. He had just seconds before been looking up at it, and was now covered in jet fuel, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
The passenger, who was on the plane that crashed February 17 while landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport, has filed a negligence lawsuit against the airline, according to his attorney.
A passenger is suing Delta Airlines and its subsidiary Endeavor Air for $30,000 in damages after a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Georgia, claims the airlines were negligent in landing the plane safely. The passenger, who is seeking over $200,000 in damages under an international agreement called the Montreal Convention, alleges the airlines failed to ensure a safe landing. Another passenger filed a similar lawsuit the following day.
All 80 people on board the Delta flight were lucky to have survived the crash-landing, but the experience had a lasting impact on passenger Lourens, who suffered injuries to his face, neck, and back, according to his lawsuit.
As the plane landed on the snowy runway, Lourens caught quick glances of flames outside his window, Andres Pereira, his lawyer, reported. Lourens thought he was “going to die.”
“He thought about his family when he saw the fire,” Pereira said.
During an appearance on “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday, he described the pilots as highly experienced and well-trained. He also stated that the crew members acted “heroically” and “as expected” based on their training.
The reason for the crash remains unclear. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, along with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, are conducting an investigation into the matter. Information uncovered in the probe may alter the trajectory of Lourens’s lawsuit, Pereira said, noting that he anticipates additional passengers will file lawsuits in the near future.
On February 17, a Delta plane, a Bombardier CRJ-900, departed Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport around 10:30 a.m. local time and crashed in Toronto approximately 4 hours later, at 2:15 p.m. local time, according to Delta.
In a matter of seconds, the plane crash-landed on the runway, leaving behind a path of flames and smoke as it rolled over, its wings severely damaged, particularly where the jet fuel is typically stored.
Lourens was seated in the front row, right next to the plane’s door on the left side, said Pereira. After unbuckling his seatbelt, Lourens helped the flight attendant open the cabin door and, once outside, he assisted other passengers as they exited the plane, according to Pereira.
At least three people were seriously injured, but fortunately, none of their injuries were life-threatening. However, Lourens was not among them, as he had taken himself to hospitals in both Toronto and Texas, where he resides with his family, after he had time to process the shock of the accident, according to Pereira.
A second passenger filed a lawsuit against Delta and Endeavor in federal court in Minnesota on Friday. Attorneys for the passenger, Hannah Krebs, have not commented on the matter.
According to Pereira, Lourens intends to accept the $30,000 payment offered by Delta. The airline stated that the payment would be made without any conditions, leaving passengers’ ability to file a lawsuit unaffected.
When the plane crashed, Lourens’s phone had slipped out of his pocket, according to Pereira. Outside the wreckage, a fellow passenger retrieved the phone and Lourens’s first call was to his wife and three children, letting them know he was okay.
Pereira expressed his hope that the case will make progress and pave the way to alleviate concerns about air travel.
“That’s our goal to enhance safety, making air travel safer for everyone in the public for generations to come,” he said.
