Lawsuit of the Day: Forced to Fly ‘Toilet-Class’
Flying these days is an exercise in self-humiliation. You pack your bag knowing that someone is likely to go through it, possibly in front of others. You have to strip down as you go through security. And the airlines have no respect for you as they announce that your flight is continually delayed due to “mechanical problems” or “weather.”
All that’s bad, but Gokhan Mutlu had it much worse on a recent JetBlue flight. From WCBS TV:
Initially, Mutlu was told a flight attendant had taken the last seat on the plane, but then he was advised she would sit in the employee “jump seat,” meaning he could have the last seat, the lawsuit said.The pilot told him 1 1/2 hours into the five-hour flight that he would have to relinquish the seat to the flight attendant, court papers say. But the pilot said that Mutlu could not sit in the jump seat because only JetBlue employees were permitted to sit there, the lawsuit said.
When Mutlu expressed reluctance to go sit in the bathroom, the pilot, who was not named in the lawsuit, told him that “he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (Mutlu) should be grateful for being on board,” the lawsuit said.
When the aircraft hit turbulence and passengers were directed to return to their seats, but “the plaintiff had no seat to return to, sitting on a toilet stool with no seat belts,” court papers say.
Mutlu is not taking it sitting down… this time. He’s filed a $2 million lawsuit against JetBlue.
There may not be seat belts in the bathroom, but at least there’s a decent amount of legroom.
Update: The New York Personal Injury Blog talks about how annoying this suit is for the rest of the personal injury law field.
Man Says JetBlue Pilot Forced Him To Sit On Toilet [WCBS TV via Drudge]
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First, and all that.
Second, I just can't believe these things actually happen. How the hell could an airline captain actually tell this guy to sit in the lavatory the whole flight? They flip out if you go to the bathroom within 10 minutes of landing.
Lulz
Some of my best experiences on a plane flight have occurred in the plane restroom. Maybe next time I use the seat selector to select my seat when I buy a ticket online I will look to the restroom to see if it is a possible choice.
You'd think for safety reasons the pilot could have overrode the jump seat rule and allowed the guy to sit there - WITH SEATBELTS - instead of on a toilet during turbulence... Asshat.
Whaaaa -- they made me sit in the bathroom so that the stewardess who was banging the pilot could sit in my seat -- whaaaa!
The only reason to fly jetblue is the directtv at the seat - I'm guessing the crapper didn't have that. Also, would he have to go stand in the aisle every time one of the other passengers had to drop the kids at the pool?
And yet somehow that seems more dignified than my 3 years in law school.
Seriously, you couldn't make this crap up! How could the pilot possibly think that the airline would not get sued for this?!! Always fasten your seatbelts, your safety is our priority, no toilet use 20 mins before landing, etc. - i.e., the big themes that the airline industry keep harping on...
Smells like bullsh*t.
The terrorists have won
jetblue = TTT airline.
The snippet pasted is a little misleading. He didn't sit in the bathroom for the duration of the flight. Apparently, at some point after the fasten seatbelt lights came on, he was told to return to his seat. I'm not clear on whether he was forced out of his seat for more than a few minutes or if it was for a longer period.
This is going to get tossed on Federal preemption grounds. The FAA decides whether airlines can force you to sit in the toilet, and that can’t be over ridden by any state tort law. That is what doomed New York State’s air passenger bill of rights, which would have, presumably, assured that passengers can't be seated in the bathroom. There is no chance the FAA will take action because the Bush administration loves the crapper: that is where its policies have put the country.
Supposedly for an hour and a half total, on a flight from San Diego to New York.
S&C will gladly represent the pilot.
- Field Marshal DiBlasi
I wasn't even shocked when I read this story. Just shows how terrible the airlines are these days.
11:05,
Not right. It was 90 minutes into the flight that he was asked to leave his seat. The article doesn't specify how long he was actually in the bathroom.
I don't see how the pilot keeps his job. No reasonable person would think it would be o.k. to tell any passenger to leave his seat so that a flight attendant could sit in it.
Why are we assuming that the complaint is factually accurate? Might want to figure out what actually happened before we condemn the actions of JetBlue and the airline industry as a whole.
I call bullshit on every word of this complaint (likely filed pro se).
11:03: Not necessarily. It'll only be preempted if the federal gov't has regulations covering torts committed in mid-flight by the airline and/or its employees. If not, he has a state remedy.
The NY Passengers BoR got canked b/c it was preempted by Federal regulations regarding delays, flight time, etc.
Ughhhh.....If there's one thing I can't stand, it's unimportant people who power trip. The pilot's a glorified cab driver. The fact that stewardesses blow him every few weeks will never change that.
He's really PO'ed because there's no seatback entertainment system in the bathroom.
Guys in my high school sat in the bathroom during 5 hour flights all the time. It was no big deal.
I think the plaintiff actually is learned in the law. He is a 3L at American University's law school -- in D.C.
11:29,
The phrases "learned in the law" and "American University's law school" should never be uttered in the same sentence.
Thanks,
GULC 2009
11:33 am,
No one in their right mind would go to GULC over AU. Stop trash talking schools that are out of your league.
Thanks,
11:29 am
Wow, run a google images search for 'airplane toilet' and steal the first image that comes up for use on ATL.
Beware the litigious hobotraveler.com
"Mutlu's lawsuit ... says JetBlue negligently endangered him."
Is there a tort of negligent endangerment in NYS? What's the legal basis of the suit?
Prediction: token settlement.
I think the pilot made the passenger sit in the toilet because he was a UVA grad.
Mutlu's seat = TTT
Stuff like this never happens at Heller.
agree with GULC 2009 -- AU law is crap.
I would take UVA over GULC or AU law any day of the week.
if this lawsuit does nothing more than stick it to JetBlue publicly, its well worth the effort, IMHO. Airline passengers get crapped on enough without incidents like this, and boo F'in hoo for the New York Personal Injury Blog and NY Personal Injury Bar.
Read the links before guessing 11:24. Filed by an employment discrimination law firm named Akin & Smith. JetBlue will settle quickly. It would be stupid to keep the story in the news, especially given all the good feelings people have for airlines. The Captain is probably gone. If he can flie helos he can always go to Iraq. Money won't be as good but at least no one will sue if he tells them to sit on the toilet.
11:24 = JetBlue's PR rep.
Jetblue = TTT airline (Toilet-Top Transportation)
Shit, I wish they would have let me sit it the toilette on my last flight. Instead I had to sit next to this fat, sweaty, mouth breather. I'm amazed I got home without being eaten. (Although I did wind up with some crumbs on me - note: I didn't eat on the flight.)
The comments on the Personal Injury Blog are *hilarious*. I love, love, love that anyone would try to defend Jet Blue here with a "ehn, so he had to sit in the bathroom for three hours, so what" response.
Well, really, the guy who writes the personal injury blog is a laugh in and of himself. His link to Akin & Smith's website has a footnote that says something to the effect of "I used TinyURL to link so their page won't get any stats bump off the links here." And he's complaining that Mutlu and his lawyers are making personal injury lawyers look bad. Oh honey, barn door: open; horse: out.
How stupid would you have to be, to be that guy? Wouldn't you get to the point where they said "yeah, go sit in the toilet" and just go "are you fucking kidding me?" Why would you have gotten out of that last real seat in the first place? I'd have stuck there until we landed or they dragged me out.
Too true, 3:47 - what was the pilot going to do if he didn't move, throw him out of the plane?
No, Mutlu went to UPenn State. He's a quaker through and through, not a cavalier.
Certainly there are FAA regulations that prohibit one from sitting on the toilet during landing at the very least. Perhaps there is an administrative remedy?