Delta To Pay $78.8M For Dumping Fuel Over LA, OC

LOS ANGELES, CA — Delta Air Lines has reached a nearly $79 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Los Angeles and Orange Couny residents and students underneath the path of a jet that dumped fuel before making an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport in 2020.

Delta has denied wrongdoing in the incident, in which tens of thousands of properties, including homes and schools in both counties, were hit by jet fuel.

The settlement, which is awaiting a judge's approval in L.A. federal court, will be distributed among 38,000 property owners and residents, according to court papers obtained Thursday.

The case stemmed from a January 2020 incident in which a Delta flight to Shanghai from Los Angeles lost thrust shortly after takeoff. Delta pilots jettisoned about 15,000 pounds of jet fuel from the Boeing 777 before returning to Los Angeles International Airport.

Property owners contend the dump was reckless and conducted at needlessly low altitude instead of safely burned off in a holding pattern.

A Federal Aviation Administration investigation later cleared the pilots of wrongdoing, Delta said.

More than two dozen children at several Los Angeles schools were treated by paramedics after they and others were hit with the jettisoned jet fuel. At one of the schools, 17 children were playing on the school playground for P.E. class when they were hit with jet fuel.

At least 20 children and 11 adults at Park Avenue Elementary in Cudahy were exposed, according to fire department officials

Josue Burgos, an 11-year-old sixth-grader at Park Avenue Elementary told the Los Angeles Times, he thought it was raining at first.

“We came out and we were playing and the airplane was outside and we thought it was rain, but then we knew it was throwing gas on us and everybody started to run,” Burgos said. “We went to the auditorium and we knew what happened. We went back to class. We stayed for one hour and then we went home.”

“Yeah, it smelled bad,” he added. “It wasn’t water.”

The Downey Fire Department responded to Gallatin Pre-School and evaluated seven patients with minor injuries. Additionally, students at Jordan High School and 93rd Street Elementary School in Los Angeles were all affected, along with a combined 12 people at Tweedy Elementary and San Gabriel Elementary School in South Gate. One adult patient at Graham Elementary in the Florence area was also treated. None had to be taken to a hospital, authorities said.

Los Angeles school police said students were dismissed for the day at 93rd Street Elementary as a result of the jet fuel dump. Police in Downey confirmed that the fuel release also affected parts of that city, but no injuries were reported.

All the injuries suffered were minor, according to the fire department. All of the affected students were released at the scene to their parents or family members.

The incident prompted outrage as well as the federal investigation.

At the time, Delta Air Lines acknowledged that its Flight 89 had to dump fuel shortly around the lunchtime reccess because it needed to make an emergency landing. The Federal Aviation Administration investigated the incident to find out if the flight crew followed protocol requiring fuel to be dumped over unpopulated areas at a high enough altitude to ensure it disperses before reaching the ground.

"There are special fuel-dumping procedures for aircraft operating into and out of any major U.S. airport," according to the FAA. "These procedures call for fuel to be dumped over designated unpopulated areas, typically at higher altitudes so the fuel atomizes and disperses before it reaches the ground."

City News Service contributed to this report.