Southwest Airlines sued for landing at wrong airport
Southwest Airlines is being sued by a passenger for ‘mental anguish’ after a flight touched down at the wrong airport in 2014.
Troy Haines filed a lawsuit against Southwest claiming he was ‘immediately struck with fear and anxiety over potentially crashing’ after the flight landed at the small M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport in Hollister instead of the intended destination of Branson Airport located nine miles away.
Due to the much shorter runway the pilots applied the thrust reversers and autobrakes, causing the passengers to violently slam forward in their seats and bags were thrown out of overhead bins.
It caused smoke to fill the cabin as the plane came to a halt just 300 feet from the end of the runway.
The suit says Haines suffered ‘mental anguish, fear and anxiety’ for months and had to change jobs at ‘substantially diminished salary’ as he was unable to fly to locations for work, the Branson Tri Lakes News reported.
The captain had never flown into Branson Airport before and the first officer had only flown there once.
The pilots decided to make a visual runway approach.
It was revealed that the first officer was not wearing glasses when he was required to, and just a few months later he retired.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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