Their seemingly generous offer may have flopped.
The first lawsuits following the Delta Air Lines crash in Toronto last week have been filed — despite Delta officials offering $30,000 to each passenger on the plane that flipped over on its approach to the airport.
More lawsuits in the case are expected to follow, CBS News reported late Friday night.
Delta would pay out about $2.3 million if all 76 passengers on the airline’s subsidiary Endeavor Air’s CRJ-900 aircraft accepted the deal.
But a man from Texas who filed one of the two lawsuits says he deserves more.
That passenger said in the lawsuit that because he was “suspended upside down” and “drenched with jet fuel” he suffered “severe emotional distress and mental anguish” as well as “significant injuries to his head, neck, back, knees and face.”
A second lawsuit, filed on behalf of a woman passenger from Minneapolis, claims she is suffering from “extreme bodily and mental injuries.”
The lawsuit also contends that the flight crew failed to observe “the most fundamental procedures for a landing approach” into the airport.
Because of the Montreal Convention, an international treaty that governs how airlines are liable for passenger injuries, baggage damage and cargo loss, more lawsuits are probably in the pipeline, CBS reported.
According to the treaty, passengers injured on international flights can be compensated up to $200,000, but it could be more if the airline is found to be negligent.
Passengers have two years to file a lawsuit under the treaty.
Twenty-one people were taken to the hospital after the crash landing of the flight Monday that originated at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
They have all since been released.
Delta said in a statement Thursday that both pilots are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, and the captain has served “in pilot training and flight safety capacities.”
The first officer, who was hired last year by Endeavor, also has “the highest-level pilot certification in the U.S.,” Delta said.
The plane was removed from the runway Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are aiding in the investigation.
