Yet another lawsuit against an airline.
CREDIT: Getty Images
Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
If you’ve ever sat in an aisle seat, you’ll know that even when a beverage cart is being pushed or pulled by a flight attendant, it can strike you, say, in the shoulder.
Planes are ever narrower. So are seats. It sometimes seems as if the beverage cart barely fits in the aisle.
Now, however, an American Airlines passenger is claiming that during takeoff of a flight from Hartford, Connecticut to Charlotte, North Carolina, a beverage cart flew down the aisle and struck him in the head.
His lawsuit against American says that Charles Johnson suffered a serious brain injury and that the pilot didn’t make an emergency landing, but carried right on to Charlotte.
Because this allegedly occurred during takeoff, Johnson says that the cart was fully loaded and weighed around 300 lbs.
Johnson claims the impact knocked his hat off his head, gashed his forehead and rendered him unconscious.
The lawsuit further claims that the cabin crew didn’t know how to look after his injuries, but that a nurse and other passengers helped him.
The alleged incident happened in April last year. Johnson says he now suffers from “chronic traumatic brain injury and post-concussive syndrome.”
He accuses American of “gross negligence” and “reckless disregard” and the lawsuit requests at least $10 million in damages.
American didn’t immediately respond to my request for comment.
This is just the latest legal case against an airline that’s surface in recent weeks.
United, for example, is being sued after video emerged of one of its employees pushing a passenger to the ground in the middle of a departure hall and then walking away, as the passenger lay there, seemingly unconscious.
In an atmosphere in which airlines have become the national symbol for corporate greed and customer disservice, more of these sorts of lawsuits may emerge.
The airlines — or at least their PR people — must be looking for good news from somewhere.
Somehow, Americans aren’t all that impressed with the profits they’re making.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.