In early 2020, just before a lethal pandemic captured the nation’s attention, a very different emergency played out in the skies over California. A Delta international flight experienced an engine issue and needed to return to the airport from which it had just taken off in Los Angeles. Doing so also required it to dump some of its fuel, something that may be necessary in the case of an emergency landing.
Unfortunately, this meant dropping jet fuel on a number of different schools in the area. As the New York Times reported at the time, this led to several students, teachers and staff experiencing skin irritation — which is about what you’d expect when a substance people aren’t supposed to touch comes into contact with human skin. Now, over five years later, Delta has settled a legal case related to the fuel dump.
As Andrew J. Campa described at the Los Angeles Times, the airline has agreed to pay residents affected by having jet fuel dropped on them a total of $79 million. As Campa reports, dozens of people at Park Avenue Elementary School were affected by the jet fuel dump. The money Delta is paying will be distributed among people affected by the fuel, with property owners receiving more per claim.
Delta Is the Latest Airline to Have Trouble With a Boeing Jet
It’s not a good thing when a slide detaches from the planeThe Los Angeles Times reports that the lawsuit encompasses 160,000 area residents and the owners of 38,000 properties in the region. This is far from the only time a plane has had to dump fuel before making an unscheduled landing. In 2023, a cargo plane dumped fuel on Martha’s Vineyard as it returned to JFK International Airport; earlier this month, a United flight also had to dump fuel before returning to Washington Dulles International Airport.
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