Delta Air Lines has agreed to pay a pretty penny to settle a lawsuit, as reported by Reuters. This involves an emergency landing several years back, related to a questionable fuel dumping decision.
In this post:
Delta agrees to pay for dumping fuel over Los Angeles
This case involves an incident that happened on January 14, 2020. Specifically, it’s related to the Boeing 777 that was scheduled to operate flight DL89 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Shanghai (PVG), with 167 people onboard.
One of the plane’s engines lost thrust after takeoff, so the pilots made the decision to return to LAX. For heavy aircraft, it’s standard for the maximum takeoff weight to be significantly higher than the maximum landing weight. So for a long haul flight, that means that fuel has to be burned or dumped before a plane can return to its origin (assuming it’s not a life threatening emergency).
In this case, the pilots made the decision to dump around 15,000 pounds of fuel, to reduce the risk of an overweight emergency landing. Fair enough, except for where this was done — rather than flying out over the Pacific Ocean, the pilots dumped fuel while flying at a low altitude over a populated area. This caused dozens of minor injuries, including for school kids.
The lawsuit argued that the pilots unnecessarily dumped fuel at a low altitude over a densely populated area, instead of dumping it over the Pacific Ocean at a higher altitude (so it would dissipate).

With this lawsuit having dragged on for a long time, Delta has agreed to settle and pay $78.75 million. The company denies wrongdoing, but says it settled to avoid uncertainty, distraction, and the cost of litigation.
Delta also claims that the crew “did exactly what federal regulations and their FAA-approved training required them to do to respond to that in-flight emergency and ensure the safety of the passengers, crew, and people on the ground.” Delta claims that a later Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation cleared the pilots of wrongdoing.
The net settlement after legal fees is expected to total around $50 million, and will be distributed to owners and/or residents of an estimated 38,000 properties. By my math, that comes out to around $1,300 or so per home… while the law firm potentially takes home tens of millions of dollars.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs argues that this settlement was fair and reasonable, and will compensate “hard-working families who asked only for respect and just treatment and rightly deserve this result.”
Were the Delta pilots actually following procedures?
Delta claims that the crew was following correct procedures, and that the FAA even cleared Delta over this. However, has anyone actually seen a statement from the FAA confirming that procedures were followed? There’s a lot about this incident that doesn’t make sense.
For one, air traffic controllers specifically asked the Delta pilots if they intended to dump fuel, and they said they said that they wouldn’t. At no point did they communicate to air traffic controllers that they dumped fuel, so… why? Furthermore, fuel was dumped at an altitude of as low as 2,300 feet above land, when it should ideally be dumped over water at an altitude of at least 5,000 feet.
Based on everything we know, the crew wasn’t facing any sort of a life threatening emergency. One of the engines had a compressor stall, and the crew later even advised that they had brought the engine back under control. To air traffic control, one of the pilots specifically communicated “we’ve got it back under control, we’re not critical.”
Every professional analysis I’ve seen published of this situation suggests this was an inexplicable decision on the part of the crew, given the circumstances. Dumping fuel at a low altitude over a populated area with a non-critical situation? Why?
Obviously Delta doesn’t want to admit wrongdoing, but how can the airline claim that the crew was following the company’s procedures? What are we missing?
Bottom line
Delta has agreed to settle a lawsuit over a 2020 fuel dumping incident, where a Boeing 777 inexplicably dumped fuel over a Los Angeles neighborhood, rather than flying out over the Pacific. What makes this all the more puzzling is that one of the pilots claimed the situation wasn’t critical, and that they didn’t intend to dump fuel… only to then do so.
Delta claims that pilots were following standard procedures, though that doesn’t match any independent analysis I’ve seen about this incident, so I’m not sure what to make of this.
What’s your take on Delta settling this fuel dumping lawsuit?
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.
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.
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.
what a dick
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....
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.
This might look bad but people forget United once did something wrong
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.
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
Ben gets the benefit. No need to take it offline.
:( breakin my heart amigo. Don’t be a Scott Kirby in a world of Ed bastians
Broke guitars?
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.
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...
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.
We’ve all seen Erin Brokevich.
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.
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...
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
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!