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Widow claims airline failed to respond to husband's medical emergency

A woman has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Southwest Airlines, claiming crew members mistook her husband's medical emergency for unruly behavior aboard a California flight and did not assist him.

Richard Ilczyszyn, 46, was found unconscious after the flight from Oakland to Orange County landed last year, and he died the next day at a hospital. Mr Ilczyszyn suffered a blood clot, according to the lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court on Monday.

The lawsuit was filed by his wife and Southwest Airlines flight attendant Kelly Ilczyszyn.


Southwest Airlines said in a statement that it was saddened to learn of the death, but its flight attendants handled the incident "appropriately and professionally."

Mr Ilczyszyn ran to the bathroom about 10 minutes before the September 2014 flight was set to land, according to the lawsuit.

Crew members heard him crying out in pain, opened the bathroom door, but then closed it again and treated the incident as a passenger disruption, the suit says.

"They just misread this, sat on their hands and this family has to suffer as a result of their particular negligence," said the family's attorney, Browne Greene.

Southwest Airlines said flight attendants handled the incident appropriately and professionally. Source: Getty.
Southwest Airlines said flight attendants handled the incident appropriately and professionally. Source: Getty.

Orange County sheriff's officials boarded the plane after it landed, but the crew had wrongly told them a passenger had barricaded himself in the bathroom, so they decided to get everyone off before opening the bathroom door, the suit says. The process took about 30 minutes, and Richard Ilczyszyn was found unconscious.

Southwest Airlines said the crew tried to reach him to provide assistance and the pilot arranged for first responders to meet the flight when it landed.

The lawsuit says the first responders did not include paramedics.

Doctors determined Richard Ilczyszyn had been deprived of oxygen to his brain for about 33 minutes while on the plane, according to the suit.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and names his three children as plaintiffs.

Mr Ilczyszyn was a financial trader who appeared on CNBC.

National news break – April 22