A Los Angeles resident who says he was covered in jet fuel, after a Delta Air Lines Boeing
777 dumped fuel over the area in 2020, is suing the airline for severe and lasting injuries.
With the lawsuit filed on December 21st, 2021, Gerald Castaneda, of Pico Rivera in southeastern
Los Angeles, is seeking unspecified damages for negligence, personal injury, and property
damage.
According to Los Angeles news outlet Fox 11, Mr Castaneda was at his Pico Rivera residence
when he was quote-unquote “doused with fuel” that was dumped from the Delta 777 on January
14th, 2020. Delta Air Lines confirmed that it had operated
a Boeing 777 bound for Shanghai that dumped approximately 15,000 gallons of fuel at just
2,000 feet over areas of metropolitan Los Angeles on the day. The pilots had shut down
one of the plane’s two engines because of a compressor stall.
“Shortly after takeoff, Flight 89 from LAX to Shanghai experienced an engine issue requiring
the aircraft to return quickly to LAX. The aircraft landed safely after a release of
fuel, which was required as part of normal procedure to reach a safe landing weight,”
said a Delta spokesperson at the time about the incident.
But didn’t Delta anticipate the fallout from the decision to dump fuel over such a
heavily populated area? In addition to Mr Castaneda’s lawsuit in late December, emergency
response teams treated at least 60 people, including children, at several Cudahy and
South Los Angeles schools after receiving a spray from the Delta Air Lines jet.
“I am distraught to learn that an airplane returning to LAX has dropped engine fuel on
children at schools,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis at the time.
Separately, groups of teachers and students went on to sue Delta. People were puzzled
by the pilot’s decision to dump the fuel over densely-populated areas rather than heading
out over the sea. At the time, the pilots confirmed that the aircraft was under control
in recorded communications to LAX ATC, and the engine shutdown was quote-uquote “not
critical.”
“No one is going to dump fuel where these guys did it over populated areas and schools.
It’s a pretty outrageous thing,” Ross Aimer, CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, told
Associated Press. “They should have gone over the ocean or landed heavyweight.”
“I began feeling a light drizzle on my hair, my face, my body,” said a Park Avenue Elementary
School teacher at a media conference in 2020. “I thought it was rain. And then I caught
the scent of fuel. I started yelling for my students to come back inside the building.
I didn’t know where the smell was coming from. So I thought, ‘Oh my God, it must
be a terrorist attack.'”
Lawyers representing several students suing Delta Air Lines said the pilots didn’t tell
LAX ATC about the need to dump fuel. Instead, they declared there was no need to dump any
fuel. The lawyers also allege the pilots made no effort to relocate the plane to a more
appropriate dumping zone. Further, they say the pilots made the dump without regard to
the health and safety of the people below. In the immediate washup, Delta said they shared
the authorities’ concerns about reported injuries to people on the ground. The airline
also said it would investigate the incident. According to Gerald Castaneda’s lawsuit,
the fuel dump resulted in him requiring medical care and caused him to lose income.
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