Last week, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani for the District of Massachusetts rejected JetBlue’s request for summary judgment in a personal injury lawsuit, stating that a jury should determine whether the airline was negligent in its maintenance. The case, brought forward by David Mellor, alleges that he was injured by an overhead bin door which detached midway through his flight on a JetBlue A320-232 aircraft in February 2018.
According to court documents, the incident took place when another passenger stood up and unlatched the overhead bin door, which had been previously secured, and it subsequently fell on Mellor during the flight’s descent. JetBlue faced scrutiny over its maintenance practices, as the case claims that the airliner failed to conduct necessary checks on critical parts of the bin door hinge, despite repeated incidents of bin doors detaching from their compartments.
Judge Talwani argued that the question at hand – whether it was negligent for JetBlue to carry out maintenance actions that did not involve inspecting functional components of the bin door hinge – was one best left for a jury to decide.
For additional details about the lawsuit and JetBlue’s response, further information can be found on www.law.com.