Earlier this year, a Delta Air Lines flight flipped during a crash landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Now, one of the flight attendants on the flight is speaking out against Delta through her attorney.
In a newly filed lawsuit, flight attendant Vannessa Miles is accusing Delta Air Lines of causing the crash through negligence.
More specifically, the lawsuit accuses the airline of hiring inexperienced pilots, which contributed to the crash.
Several People Were Injured in the Crash
On Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 at about 2:45 p.m., Delta Flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air, crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The plane flipped and caught fire as it landed on the runway.
While there were no fatalities, at least 18 people were injured. One child was transported to the hospital and one person had to be airlifted to a trauma center.
Miles Suffered Injuries
Miles, who is a Delta flight attendant who was traveling for work as a passenger on the flight, claims to have suffered “severe and permanent injuries”, including a traumatic brain injury, post-concussion syndrome, a fractured left shoulder, bilateral knee injuries, and back injuries, according to WDIV4 Detroit.
In the lawsuit, Miles claims to lost consciousness during the crash and woke up covered in jet fuel and hanging upside down by her seatbelt. The lawsuit claims that she then fell 6 to 7 feet to the ground trying to exit the plane because emergency slides hadn’t been deployed.
Attorney Mike Morse said that Miles is still out of work following the crash.
Pilot Qualifications Called into Question
The lawsuit claims that the crash was preventable and was the result of human error, claiming that the plane was traveling at a dangerously high speed during the landing.
“The way our calculations, my experts’ calculations, they should have been going about maybe 560 feet per minute during their dissent,” Morse said via WDIV4. “Right before they hit the ground, they were at 1,100 feet per minute.”
The lawsuit also questions the qualifications of the co-pilot that landed the plane, suggesting there was inexperience and questioning why the captain of the flight never took over during the landing.
“The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, they acknowledged there was some inexperience in the pilots,” Morse said. “The co-pilot had been working for Endeavor and Delta for about four months. She did not have thousands of hours, she might have had FAA minimums.”
Miles Seeks $75 Million in Damages
Miles is seeking $75 million in damages and hopes that the litigation as well as the investigation will prevent crashes like this from happening again in the future.
“I feel like an airplane crash like this, when there was most likely human error in our opinion, asking where were they putting their training, why were certain people flying, why did this happen, will make us all safer,” Morse said, via WDIV4.
