Flight attendant files wrongful death suit against Southwest Airlines | Road Warrior Voices

Richard Ilczyszyn, a financial analyst and contributor to CNBC’s “Futures Now”, was on a Southwest flight last September when he fell ill, suffering what was later determined to be a fatal pulmonary embolism. He collapsed in the plane’s bathroom about 10 minutes before the flight was scheduled to land at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, and according to the Sheriff’s report, the flight crew discovered him “slumped over,” “groaning” and “crying.”

When the flight landed, a crew member called the police, allegedly believing that Ilczyszyn was a disruptive passenger. In a phone call, a Southwest employee told the dispatcher:All of the passengers were instructed to leave the plane before the officers boarded the aircraft, discovering an “unresponsive” Ilczyszyn in the bathroom. The paramedics were then called to the scene.

That delayed response to Ilczyszyn’s condition – and the fact that Southwest crew members called the Sheriff instead of an ambulance – is why his widow, Kelly Ilczyszyn has filed a wrongful death suit against the airline. Ilczyszyn, who has worked as a Southwest flight attendant for 16 years, believes that her husband would have survived if he had received immediate medical attention. She told CBS News:In a statement, representatives for Southwest said that the crew acted “appropriately and professionally” when handling the “unfortunate medical event.”

Sara Nelson, the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, told CBS that flight crews are trained to treat any kind of disruption during a flight as a potential threat to security – or as a diversion to distract crews while a more dangerous incident takes place. She said:Kelly Ilczyszyn believes otherwise. “They dropped the ball,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

 

He had a PE. There was nothing the crew could have done to save his life. I've seen people IN THE ER, have a PE, and not make it.

 

Ilczyszyn, who has worked as a Southwest flight attendant for 16 years,



Does she still work there?
So she collected on his life insurance and now wants more from her employer?

 

I think she has merit specially when the F/A stated that she opened the Lav and saw the man with his head down. We weren't there to see what took place, but the fact that they waited to get to him will be enough to get some type of settlement from the airline, never mind whether or not he would have made it.

 

This doesn't make it sound very good for SWA: Financial analyst Richard Ilczyszyn's widow files wrongful death lawsuit against Southwest Airlines - CBS News

 

You can't disregard a pax in distress because he "might" be part of a diversion.

But as deadstick pointed out he wasnt going to make it anyway.

 

It's not the FA's job to decide whether the passenger will make it or not. Other passengers should have been kept in their seats while the passenger in distress received medical assistance as quickly as possible. Deboarding the airplane and then calling the Sherrif for an unruly passenger was inexcusable.


The widow is not a former FA; she is an FA on leave. She might have some idea of what the proper procedures are.





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Non of you know if those minutes would have made a difference or not. However the FA's on this were dead wrong (no pun intended).
The world keeps filling itself with more and more sheep.
Use your dam brains folks.

 

This is where our national paranoia has taken us.

Pathetic.