Delta Will Pay $79 Million Over Puzzling Fuel Dumping Incident

Counsel for plaintiffs has a masters in aerospace engineering in addition to a JD. Fascinating!

Lawyers aren’t rich. Large settlements make up for years of losses. And, the deterrent effect on corporate malfeasance is what really matters and benefits us all.

Spoken like a true lawyer!

Hi Ben, long time reader, first time commenter. I understand that the victims only getting about 2/3 of the settlement while the rest goes to the lawyers probably feels unfair. However, as an attorney who works on class actions (although to be clear, not this one), I’d like to point out a few things. First, the firm who handled this undoubtedly spent thousands of hours (if not tens of thousands) working on the case. They also almost certainly had expenses such as retaining experts. Point being, they sunk a lot of time and money into this case, and if Delta had refused to settle and the plaintiffs had lost at trial, all of that would have been lost. While firms of course do their best to take on winnable cases that can make money for both the plaintiffs and the attorneys, there aren’t any sure things, and taking on these cases is always going to have the risk of potentially huge losses. Additionally, the cut they took is pretty standard in these types of cases (and even if the plaintiffs were to get every dime of the settlement, that would still only work out to around an extra $700 per household). And of course, anyone who feels that the settlement amount is insufficient can choose to sue on their own and not be a part of the class. Don’t get me wrong, my profession has more than its share of slimeballs, but I think “greedy lawyers making bank while the actual victims get screwed” is a bit simplistic (although understandable!) Anyway, love the blog, just wanted to give a little perspective from someone who does this for a living.

It would be one thing if this happened somewhere else, but come on… the ocean is right there…! Maybe they thought they wouldn’t need to dump fuel but rechecked their math and decided they did need to dump *just a little* but didn’t want to vector around to do it. I’m sure we’ll never know what really happened, but this is a head-scratcher.

This might look bad but people forget United once did something wrong

We’ve all seen Erin Brokevich.

Delta's claim that pilots "followed procedures" is contradicted by basic facts: FAA rules require fuel dumps over unpopulated areas at 5,000+ feet to allow atomization. These pilots dumped at 2,300 feet over schools after explicitly telling ATC twice they wouldn't dump fuel. The situation wasn't even critical - they said "we've got it under control, we're not critical." No evidence exists of any FAA "clearance." This incident was outrageous because it violated every standard procedure. $79M says otherwise.

yeah... that car in the employee parking lot that got taken out by UA's "liberated" 777 tire was worth nowhere near tens of millions of dollars.

that was part of quite a run of UA maintenance and flight operations news that made the nightly news.

At least UA were honest about their errors.

lol. Erin Brockovich movie is exactly what I got reminded from this comment. We do understand but we will still vent over the expensive lawyer fees on class actions because we can.

Honestly I’m impressed. I’m really good at trolling - as verified by many exasperated people in my life - but you put me to shame. Could we collaborate on a series of YouTube videos or something? Feels like a missed opportunity if we don’t tbh

Everyone knows that kerosene, taken at the right dosages, is *good* for children, just like carbon monoxide.

Bobby Kennedy Jr. told us so, just like he let us know that vaccines are BAD for children.

Ben gets the benefit. No need to take it offline.

I’d like to order a side of chlorine and benzene - always felt I missed out on the fun all those kids had at Love’s Canal in the 50s.

Thanks so much @Mr.Pants,Esq. for this post! I really understand better now how these suits work, in the right and proper way.

My experience has been as participant in class-action suits, which, after years of silence and meaningless updates from weird-address emails, have resulted in my receiving a check for $3.72 or $7.28 as the adjudicated amount paid to me and perhaps everyone else in the suit. LOL

I'm not complaining, as I don't really care about the $$ as much as the fact that whatever corporation was involved has to spend their time and money on trying to defends stupid or senseless decisions/products that they sold, and finally lost.

Thanks again for your nicely rational presentation.

Dr. Stan
CDMX

Broke guitars?

what a dick

🙁 breakin my heart amigo. Don’t be a Scott Kirby in a world of Ed bastians

There is a lot wrong with the dumping event.
1. It was ridiculously low. They should have been 6000 ft or higher.
2. There wasn’t a reason to dump any fuel. Even at max gross the 777 can land no problem. If you can takeoff with it you can land with it. Yes there will be an overweight inspection, but unless you’re ham fisted you won’t damage anything. Even single engine.

I think you are wrong. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap9_section_4.html

Delta should have a now slogan on their planes; Lying liars telling more lies.

please don't tell me you are a commercial airline pilot and say that max landing weight and max takeoff weight are the same thing. The MLW is easily 100k pounds less for the 777-200ER or LR than the MTOW

and you create far more risk than just needing an overweight inspection esp. w/ one engine apparently not functioning.

whether they should have dumped fuel where they did is one thing but your statements are categorically false.

there is nothing about commercial aviation that is good for people not inside the fuselage.

This would have never happened on Southwest.

you are correct.

The 737 cannot dump fuel. Neither can most narrowbodies.

@ Tim; you are right, 737's ussualy can't dump, unless the Carrier pay for it, as is the case for any A/C! But this was not a 737, it was a 777. FYI back in time I flew a A320 who dumped flew! Can you explain pls?!

That regulation covers ATC coordination - which Delta violated by not notifying controllers after explicitly saying they wouldn't dump fuel. The main issue is that pilots told ATC "negative" when asked about dumping, said they were "not critical," then dumped at 2,300 feet over schools anyway. Even emergency authority doesn't explain why they contradicted their own statements to ATC.

Sure, I can explain it for you:

You made it up. Like the 737, the A320 family can’t jettison either. Landings are possible up to max takeoff weight so there is no need.

Hope this helps.

I’m glad someone here is finally thinking of the lawyers.