Woman sues American Airlines over burns to ‘genital area’ from in-flight coffee spill

A passenger aboard an American Airlines flight is suing the carrier over claims her genitalia was badly burned when a scalding pot of coffee fell off a serving cart and into her lap during turbulence.

Gina Mason, 68, was flying home from Baltimore to Detroit on February 11 when the captain came over the PA system and asked everyone in the cabin to take their seats due to bumpy air up ahead, according to a lawsuit filed August 13 in Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Court and removed to Detroit federal court last week.

The suit says the flight attendants were in the middle of distributing beverages and snacks throughout the cabin when the turbulence began, and one of them parked their cart next to Mason, who was buckled up in seat 29A, then went to sit down.

“During the turbulence, the beverage cart was shaking which resulted in the hot coffee pot that was left on top of the cart to fall off into [Mason’s] lap, causing her to sustain severe 1st and 2nd degree burns over her legs, thighs, and genital area,” the complaint states.

Mason is not the first airline passenger to claim damages in court from a hot beverage fiasco at 30,000 feet. In February, a woman flying Korean Air from New York City to Seoul sued after a flight attendant “spilled a… cup of boiling hot coffee on [her] lap, causing her to sustain grievous personal injuries near her genital area,” according to a civil complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court.

In 2022, a traveler — also aboard Korean Air — sued after she said a flight attendant spilled hot tea onto her lap, causing “burns to her legs, both thighs and the area in between,” and “possible permanent cosmetic deformity and scarring.” In 2015, the carrier was hit with a lawsuit by a man claiming similar injuries from a cup of hot coffee a Korean Air flight attendant had allegedly placed on his tray table amidst a bout of rough turbulence. (Earlier this month, Korean Air announced it would no longer offer instant noodles to passengers on long-haul flights, blaming turbulence for an increase in “burn accidents.”)

A 33-year-old man flying Ryanair from London to Dublin settled out of court with the airline in 2015 over an incident in which he said his genitals and groin were horribly burned when a flight attendant accidentally poured boiling tea onto him. Ronald Furlong, who was forced to disrobe in the aisle of the plane and sit in a temporary seat for the remainder of the flight, was awarded an undisclosed amount for his troubles.

The following year, a 16-year-old boy sued Virgin Australia over a hot coffee spill he said caused excruciating burns and blistering to his genitals. In 2018, a model flying Asiana business class from South Korea to Paris sued after receiving 3rd-degree burns to her “private parts” after a flight attendant spilled hot noodle soup on her. The woman said her injuries wound up impacting her relationship with her husband; a court in Seoul awarded her about $130,000 as compensation.

In Mason’s case, her lawsuit accuses American Airlines of not having used “due care and caution in securing their beverage carts during the flight,” and says the flight attendant was negligent in “failing to remove or secure the hot coffee pot on the beverage cart during extreme turbulence” and “negligently leaving the beverage cart parked directly next to a passenger’s seat during extreme turbulence.”

On top of the burns, Mason says the incident also caused her anxiety and depression, according to the complaint.

She is asking for money damages, to be determined by a judge, for “physical pain and suffering, physical disability, incapacity, denial of everyday social pleasures and enjoyments, diminished quality of life, scarring and disfigurement, mental anguish, emotional distress, fright and shock, [and] embarrassment and humiliation,” along with reimbursement for legal fees and medical expenses.

American Airlines officials, and the attorneys defending the carrier against Mason’s lawsuit, did not respond to The Independent’s requests for comment on Sunday.