NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

For survivors of Southwest engine explosion, what comes next?

By Christopher Yasiejko
Washington Post·
20 Apr, 2018 06:46 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Shocking video shows the aftermath of a window blowing out on an American passenger jet. Video/Marty Martinez

Being on an airplane more than six miles in the air when an engine blows up and sends shrapnel through a window is an experience so scary that aviation lawyers say it's not just the family of the woman killed on a Southwest flight this week who could have a case.

"All of the passengers here, and the crew, will likely have claims," said Robert Clifford, founder of Chicago-based Clifford Law Offices, who's been involved in every domestic commercial aviation disaster since the 1970s.

"Even if these people were not physically injured," he said, "many, many of them will experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder."

The people who were sending "videos to their families, saying, 'These are my last words to you,' which is something that did occur in this incident, that kind of person will live with that for the rest of their life," he said. The plane was carrying 149 people, including 5 crew.

Days after a jet engine exploded about 32,500 feet over Pennsylvania 20 minutes into a flight, federal and corporate inspectors are examining what happened. The National Transportation Safety Board said it will take at least a year to pinpoint what caused the engine failure that led to the first fatality on a U.S.-registered airline in more than nine years.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In the meantime, several experts with knowledge of commercial airline disasters said that Southwest will likely lead the charge to work with passengers and their families.

In cases of serious injury or death, an airline will usually advance funds to help passengers with immediate needs. George Hamlin, a transportation consultant based in Fairfax, Virginia, who has worked with airlines and commercial aviation suppliers, said that although he's not sure "non-physical injury" would be covered under that scenario, Southwest's reputation suggests the company will go to some lengths to appease people who were on the flight.

Still, that may not preclude litigation down the road, though the precedent for liability based on emotional trauma or non-serious injuries is ambiguous.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Clifford is particularly attuned to what forced Flight 1380 to abort its route to Dallas and land instead in Philadelphia. He was lead counsel for survivors of a DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, in July 1989. One hundred twelve people died and 184 survived.

"Uncontained engine failures, in which parts of the engine burst through the protective casing called a cowling, have a special history for me in my work," he said.

Technical experts from Boeing, which makes the 737 jetliner involved in the incident, and engine maker CFM International, a venture of General Electric Co. and France's Safran SA, are gathering clues about what caused the accident.

Southwest workers, Clifford said, cannot sue their employer. They would, however, have standing to sue General Electric or the manufacturer of any faulty component of the engine. GE, Boeing and Southwest will probably pool funding for settlements and sort out reimbursements later, according to Clifford.

Every commercial plane in the sky is insured for anywhere from US$1.85b ($2.5b) to US$2.1b. Each company involved has its own insurance coverage, he said.

"All of those insurance interests have already gotten together," Clifford said, "and somebody's on point for dealing with these cases."

A spokesman for Boeing declined to comment beyond the company's initial statement that its technical team's priority is assisting the NTSB in its investigation, while a representative of General Electric didn't have an immediate comment. Representatives for Southwest didn't respond to a request for comment.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. Photo / AP
National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. Photo / AP

At Wisner Law Firm in Geneva, Illinois, clients who are parties in litigation related to an American Airlines engine that exploded on a Chicago runway in 2016 have been calling to ask how Tuesday's incident might affect their case, according to Alexandra Wisner, a partner at the firm.

The clients are saying, "'That's exactly what we were afraid would happen, that this would happen in-flight, and that's why we were all so fearful of our lives,"' she said.

People are typically still in shock during the first few days after such an event, Wisner said. Sometimes, they're not aware that they could have a claim. "They think, 'Well, I didn't have some kind of big injury,"' she said, so they don't realize that any remedy is available.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Under domestic law, Wisner said, "there is an argument that there is a contemporaneous injury here, a physical one. It can range from things like the inhalation of smoke, to having turbulence -- being jerked around in the plane. Depending on how exactly the evacuation went, if people were being knocked into each other -- it really depends on the facts of the case."

Wisner has represented passengers in a number of incidents that have included in-flight turbulence or an emergency evacuation. Southwest, she said, might already be reaching out to passengers, asking if they're all right and whether they needed any sort of treatment.

On international flights, the Montreal Convention governs liability, so any passengers who were on one leg of an international trip would be covered by those standards. But with international tickets, "fright alone" hasn't traditionally been a recoverable claim, according to one experienced aviation lawyer who asked not to be identified because of potential involvement in future litigation.

If you have an airline that dropped 30,000 feet and all the engines went off, you couldn't recover for the fright unless you were physically injured, he said.

There are examples of what not to do, according to Wisner. In the days after the American Airlines incident on the Chicago tarmac, she said American offered her clients frequent-flier points and vouchers.

"They were actually insulted by it," she said, "because they felt that's not going to compensate them for the horror that they went through on that day."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Premium
Retail

'Give it a second chance': Ruby's recycled clothing venture takes off

06 Jul 03:00 AM
Premium
Opinion

Opinion: What to do if you have been left out of a parent's will

06 Jul 12:00 AM
New Zealand

26-year-old beats seven finalists to win Young Farmer of the Year

05 Jul 11:41 PM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

Premium
'Give it a second chance': Ruby's recycled clothing venture takes off

'Give it a second chance': Ruby's recycled clothing venture takes off

06 Jul 03:00 AM

Miller-Sharma aiming for 25% of revenue from non-new clothing by 2030.

Premium
Opinion: What to do if you have been left out of a parent's will

Opinion: What to do if you have been left out of a parent's will

06 Jul 12:00 AM
26-year-old beats seven finalists to win Young Farmer of the Year

26-year-old beats seven finalists to win Young Farmer of the Year

05 Jul 11:41 PM
Premium
Trump’s finances were shaky. Then he began to capitalise on his comeback

Trump’s finances were shaky. Then he began to capitalise on his comeback

05 Jul 08:00 PM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP