DETROIT – A Detroit flight attendant is suing Delta Air Lines and accusing the company of using inexperienced pilots after she was on a plane that crashed on a runway in Toronto.
The attorney for Vannessa Miles, who was aboard a plane that flipped during a crash landing earlier this year, is speaking out about a newly filed lawsuit, accusing Delta Air Lines of causing the crash through negligence.
The video of the Delta plane flipped upside down at Toronto Pearson International Airport made national news back in February.
Miles, a Delta flight attendant who was traveling for work as a passenger on that flight, is now suing the airline and its subsidiary, Endeavor Air. Mike Morse Law Firm is representing Miles in the case.
The suit claims she lost consciousness during the crash and woke up covered in jet fuel and hanging upside down by her seatbelt. After freeing herself, the suit claims she fell 6 to 7 feet to the ground trying to exit the plane because emergency slides hadn’t been deployed.
The lawsuit states Miles suffered several “severe and permanent injuries”, including a traumatic brain injury, post-concussion syndrome, a fractured left shoulder, bilateral knee injuries, and back injuries. Attorney Mike Morse said Miles is still out of work following the crash.
Morse argues the plane was traveling at a dangerously high speed during the landing.
“The way our calculations, my experts’ calculations, they should have been going about maybe 560 feet per minute during their dissent,” Morse said. “Right before they hit the ground, they were at 1,100 feet per minute.”
Morse is questioning the qualifications of the co-pilot that landed the plane and questioning why the captain of the flight never took over during the landing.
“The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, they acknowledged there was some inexperience in the pilots,” Morse said. “The co-pilot had been working for Endeavor and Delta for about four months. She did not have thousands of hours, she might have had FAA minimums.”
In a statement, Delta declined to comment on pending litigation but defended the captain and first officer’s experience. Delta provided the following about their background:
“Captain: Mesaba Airlines, a progenitor company of Endeavor Air, hired the captain in October 2007. He has served both as an active duty Captain and in pilot training and flight safety capacities. Assertions that he failed training events are false. Assertions that he failed to flow into a pilot position at Delta Air Lines due to training failures are also false.
First Officer: Hired in January 2024 by Endeavor Air and completed training in April 2024. Her flight experience exceeded the minimum requirements set by U.S. Federal regulations. Assertions that she failed training events are false.”
The lawsuit is seeking $75 million in damages. Morse says he hopes the case and the pending investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will prevent similar crashes from happening.TROI
“I feel like an airplane crash like this, when there was most likely human error in our opinion, asking where were they putting their training, why were certain people flying, why did this happen, will make us all safer,” Morse said.