yoke jerker

i have heard of the stages of grieving and I know that anger is one of them..but that pertains to loss of life.

this is just one of those simple stages of living.

wake up, get pi$$ed ,stay pi$$ed, drink heavily, beat somebody, pass out and repeat.

if the media hadn't made sully king, (not a knock on him by any measure) then passengers would not have equated the dollars with the brevity of the situation.

wrxpilot

I think Canada should be sued for sending their damn birds down here. How reckless can they be? These are big, huge birds and they just have them flying around in huge flocks near large population centers and airports. It is reckless and irresponsible, and the Canadians need to be held accountable.

Freightpuppy

Thanks SandyCo!

Bucking Bar

Envy will be part of the equation. The law is clear that without a physical injury, there can be no claim for "fear." There are ways around that rule and I'm sure New York (or did it fall on the NJ side of the river?) attorneys are being very creative in the way that they craft their advice to their clients. "Well, you were injured, but if you start a physical manifestation, like incontinence as a result of stress, maybe you could be a millionaire ... maybe your law firm could be Billionaires if we get enough of you together."

Then you get into the issue of envy. Do you want to be the person who says, "oh my phone was a cheapie and I had no luggage, here's your $5,000 back, I did not need it."

Truth is, several of my neighbors went into foreclosure and had their debt written down by around $100,000 each. On the other hand I scrimped and paid my house off a couple years ago when I was making good money. Now I'm feeling a little screwed because everyone else got "free money."

If greed is not compelling, envy is. Lawyers know it. That's how they manipulate the sheeple.

Box Office

One laptop could easily cost $2,000 to $3,000 to replace. Throw in a nice business suit for two for the business traveler, plus a few nights in a hotel plus a rental car and they easily could need $5,000 or a little more to cover expenses. I think that is a fair immediate amount and then the airline will work with people that lost more. However, expecting anything more than direct compensation of lost items is unfounded and ridiculous. Suing is despicable.

ImEbee

This bring up an interetsing question? How much insurance do airlines carry per flight? Even a $10 surcharge per round trip ticket would get United alone about $19 million a year (based on average load of 100 pax). Not a bad legal fund.

Oskeewowow

Was giving the victims 5k and a letter of apology the right thing to do? Yes. However, Airways just opened up the floodgates by admitting on a very small scale, some responsibility and perhaps guilt. Now when they go into court over these disputes, the question of whether compensation to the victims is US Airways responsibility has been already answered. I don't think the airline should dole out millions to each victim, but I sure could imagine a judge thinking that. The moral thing to do was to give these passengers some compensation. The legal savvy thing would be to wait...

Just two cents from someone with no legal expertise, but likes to watch Law & Order

Jetset0045

You survive a bird strike, a ditching into icy waters, and a water rescue, plus you get $5000??? Just shows how greedy and ungrateful people really are...

The Dominican

In a legal system where a person can bring a suit againts their dry cleaners for millions for a pair of pants and even after winning the case they still lost so much money in legal fees that they had to sell 40% of their business assets to pay for legal fees. In a legal system as screwed as ours is It would be naive to think that no law suits would come out of this, I agree that the payment of the 5K was a mistake since this will be viewed in a court case as damage control rather than good will on behalf of the company

montauk

The $5,000. per passenger is provided by the insurance policy covering US Airways. The $5,000. is meant to be a gesture of good will. In a perfect world and if no passengers were seriously injured $5,000. would cover most people for lost belongings and a hotel stay. Unfortunately wer'e talking the USA home of the law suit.