LOS ANGELES — The airliner fuel-dumping incident over Cudahy is taking on legal ramifications.

Four Los Angeles teachers are suing Delta Airlines after a China-bound plane dumped fuel over playgrounds and schools, citing emotional anguish and distress and accusing the pilot of failing to follow protocol.

The teachers, who have not been identified, say the airline was negligent by allowing the plane to depart in the first place.

In their suit, the teachers from Park Avenue Elementary School in south Los Angeles, some 17 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, said they could feel fuel on their clothing, skin and eyes. The exposure caused the women to feel dizzy, nauseated and sick, attorney Gloria Allred said. Young students screamed and cried, she said.
"They also suffered severe emotional distress from the knowledge that they had involuntarily ingested toxins," Allred said in a statement Friday. "Their severe emotional distress includes the reasonable fear that the exposure to and ingestion of jet fuel might produce serious health consequences in the future."

The teachers are seeking compensatory damages.

Story Date: January 23, 2020