Death by poultry?

Posted on November 5, 2013 in Our Blog,Public Safety

A 73-year-old man died while traveling on American Airlines, and his family blames the airlines and the chicken he ate on board. The family has filed a lawsuit against American Airlines and Sky Chefs, whom they claim provided the in-flight food.

The 73-year-old, Othon Cortes, was flying from Spain to New York and then on to his home in Miami. He ingested the in-flight meal on the flight from Barcelona to New York and soon was plagued by stomach pain and nausea. He continued to feel ill on board the flight from New York to Miami, and the plane had to make an unscheduled landing in Norfolk, Virginia, to tend to his medical needs. Cortes died shortly after landing.

Cortes’s family claims the chicken he ate was contaminated and made him ill. The family also believes the airlines was negligent and should have provided medical care to Cortes earlier. They think he should not have been allowed to board the flight to Miami, since he was in medical distress, and that the airplane delayed its emergency landing too long. The family is asking for more than $1 million.

Food poisoning generally does not come on suddenly, but there are exceptions to the rule. It is unclear whether others on the flight were sickened by the same chicken. In fact, this story brings up a lot of unanswered questions.

For more on this story, see this article.