Lawsuit: In-flight meal led to AA flier"s death
The family of a deceased American Airlines passenger is suing the airline, claiming that the man died from food poisoning he got from his in-flight meal.
CNN is among several outlets to pick up the story. It reports:
The wife and daughter of the late Othon Cortes of Miami are suing the airline and Sky Chefs for more than $1 million, alleging he ate food contaminated with bacteria during a flight from Barcelona, Spain, to New York.
ALSO ONLINE: Survey: Air Canada has healthiest airline food
The incident happened on May 18 after Cortes consumed an in-flight meal that allegedly contained chicken, according to a lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Miami.
According to the New York-based International Business Times (IBT), the lawsuit claims Othon Cortes" chicken meal was contaminated with the potentially deadly bacteria Clostridium perfingens.
In the suit, Cortes" wife says her 73-year-old husband suffered severe stomach pains and a "clear outward manifestation of severe physical illness" after the AA flight landed at New York"s JFK Airport.
The Corteses managed to make their connecting flight to Miami. On that flight, Othon Cortes suffered nausea and shortness of breath, and the flight diverted to Norfolk, Va., after he suffered "a cardiac event," according to ABC News. Othon Cortes was declared dead shortly after landing.
In the lawsuit, the Cortes family accuses American and catering company SkyChefs of "failing to properly maintain or prepare the food."
The Miami New Times writes that the suit also alleges "AA was negligent in allowing Othon to board the domestic flight, failing to provide medical attention and waiting too long to (opt for) an emergency landing."
MSNBC.com put in a call to the U.S. Department of Transportation for some background on that part of the suit.
"We"re not aware of receiving any complaints regarding passengers whom the airlines should have denied boarding due to illness but who nevertheless were allowed to fly," DOT spokesman Bill Mosley told MSNBC. He said customer complaints usually come when passengers are denied boarding, not the other way around.
The FDA information page on the bacteria says Clostridium perfingens is common, but – rarely – can be fatal.
Robert Quigley, regional medical director of the Americas Region for International SOS, told MSNBC that mos