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Lawsuit of the Day: Forced to Fly ‘Toilet-Class’

Toilet Blue.jpgFlying 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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