Lawsuit: Airline Food Killed Passenger

American Airlines hit with litigation
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 2, 2011 1:07 PM CST
Lawsuit: Airline Food Killed Passenger
Surely you always suspected airline meals were not to be trusted.   (Shutterstock)

Try not to think about this one next time you’re on a long flight: A Miami family is suing American Airlines and Sky Chefs for more than $1 million, claiming that a family member died after eating a contaminated in-flight meal on a trip home from Barcelona. Othon Cortes was served a chicken dinner while crossing the Atlantic, and according to the lawsuit was already experiencing “clear outward manifestation of severe physical illness” when he caught a connecting flight in New York, CNN reports.

Cortes then experienced nausea, shortness of breath, and a cardiac event on the second flight, forcing an emergency landing in Virginia. He was dead by the time the plane touched down. His family says that death was caused by poisoned food. Sky Chefs, which makes meals for some 300 airlines, has filed to dismiss its part of the suit, saying it couldn’t be responsible, because it didn’t cater the flight in question. American Airlines—which has enough problems already—hasn’t commented. (More American Airlines stories.)

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