Airlines face multi-million dollar lawsuit after death of obese woman
Delta and KLM have been threatened with a $6m lawsuit from the husband of a clinically obese woman who died while on holiday in Hungary after she was refused a seat home for medical treatment.
He is seeking damages from the airlines claiming they failed to properly care for his wife, who was wheelchair-bound and weighed over 30 stone.
Vilma Soltez died from health complications after failed attempts to board her on three separate flights, one with KLM, a second with its partner Delta, and a third with Lufthansa.
She had travelled with her husband to her summer home in Hungary with Delta and KLM Airlines but had reportedly put on weight during her trip.
According to a report in the New York Post, the couple’s travel agent had told Delta/KLM before the trip that she needed to return home on October 15 to continue with medical treatment for kidney problems and diabetes.
But her husband Janos claimed the couple were told they could not fly on their original Delta/KLM flight from Hungary because the aircraft did not have the necessary seat extension.
He said they were directed to drive to Prague for a Delta/KLM flight home. At Prague, Soltez could not be transferred to the flight because equipment could not be found that would hold her weight.
Their New York travel agent then found them another flight with Lufthansa, via Frankfurt, but this was not viable for the same reasons despite three seats being available for the passenger.
According to reports, a local fire crew were bought in to help move her into the seats but they could not lift her out of her wheelchair.
A spokesman for Delta said: "Delta offers its sincere condolences to the family on the passing of Vilma Soltesz. After the operating carrier in Budapest (KLM) was physically unable to board Mrs. Soltesz on its flight, and despite a determined good-faith effort by Delta in Prague, we were also physically unable to board her on our aircraft on October 16."
Delta said the two airlines did everything possible to assist the family and had made repeated attempts for nearly an hour to help the lady board.
Lufthansa said: "Lufthansa, together with its local partners, fire brigade and technical experts at Budapest Airport, tried its utmost to accommodate this passenger on board our flight from Budapest.
"After several, time-consuming attempts it was decided that for the safety of this passenger and the over 140 fellow passengers, Lufthansa had to deny transportation of the passenger. Safe and reliable operations are Lufthansa’s paramount priorities at all times."
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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