A passenger who suffered a stroke just before boarding an international flight, and suffered a subsequent stroke while flying over the Atlantic Ocean, has been awarded $9.6 million in damages after a jury determined American Airlines was to blame for failing to divert the plane or to seek medical advice, delaying his treatment for eight hours.
The Judges in federal court in San Jose, California, heard six days of testimony before returning the verdict against the Fort Worth-based airline.
A 67-year-old California chef suffered two strokes during a transatlantic American Airlines flight in 2021. The flight was never diverted. A federal jury ordered that the airline pay $11 million to the passenger. He survived the ordeal, but can no longer speak or write and requires constant care.
This $9.6M penalty verdict follows another such negligence back in Oct 2024, when the U.S. Transportation Department fined American a record $50M for mistreating disabled passengers, citing unsafe assistance and mishandled wheelchairs.
Jesus Plasencia and his wife were flying from Miami to Madrid in November 2021. According to the Los Angeles Times, Plasencia suffered a "mini-stroke" while the plane was still at the gate.
The first flight was trouble-free but shortly after boarding the second flight in Miami, Plasencia “experienced a sudden inability to pick up his phone and began speaking gibberish”.
Despite temporarily losing the ability to speak, the crew onboard didn't contact medical personnel. The pilot instead cleared the passenger for take-off. Plasencia would have another stroke during the flight. This time, the cabin crew didn't inform the pilot of what happened.
When the American Airlines flight landed in the Spanish capital, Plasencia was hospitalized in critical condition, where he remained for over three weeks. He remains dependent on around-the-clock in-home care.
In court, the couple's lawyers argued that a better medical outcome could've been possible if care hadn't been delayed by eight hours. Jurors determined that American Airlines was negligent under the Montreal Convention, a 1999 international treaty that established rules for airline liability.
The Convention's Article 17, Paragraph 1 states:
"The carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger upon condition only that the accident which caused the death or injury took place on board the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking."
The jury didn't find American entirely at fault. The couple was awarded $13.28 million in damages. However, that amount was reduced by 27.5% because partial responsibility was assigned to the couple. With interest, the airline was ordered to pay $11 million.
This could have been avoided if the cabin crew had been more cautious or the couple had thrown a fit over the lack of concern.
