Nine passengers who were aboard an airplane that experienced a windshield blowout mid-flight in March are now suing the air carrier for emotional suffering.
According to a civil complaint filed in Bethel Superior Court on June 12, negligent actions by Anchorage-based Trygg Air placed passengers aboard a March 7 charter flight from Scammon Bay to Anchorage in imminent fear of death.
Myron Angstman, one of two attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said that the passengers deserve to be financially compensated for their experience.
"It's hard to imagine how terrifying it would be to have this happen at 27,000 feet, and they're sitting in the back of an airplane with the wind blowing through," Angstman said. "[...] Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this, but in the meantime we had nine really terrified passengers that we’re hoping to compensate."
The complaint lays out a harrowing scene for the pilot and nine passengers aboard the Pilatus PC-12 after its pilot side window cracked at an elevation of 27,000 feet and then blew out completely while in descent.
The passengers, all residents of Scammon Bay and including an infant and a child, said that they were subjected to deafening noise, an immediate decompression of the aircraft, and dangerous frostbite conditions during a roughly half-hour emergency descent into the Kuskokwim River community of Sleetmute, according to the complaint.
According to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report and previous reporting by KYUK, none of the passengers reported significant physical injuries from the incident.
The complaint requests an unspecified amount of financial compensation to be determined at trial. An initial hearing had not been set as of June 15.
Trygg Air declined a request for comment.
In Florida in 2019, another Pilatus PC-12 was able to safely land after its pilot-side windshield shattered shortly after takeoff. According to the NTSB, that windshield failure was likely due to improper maintenance.
