The family of a disabled man who died just over a month after a serious fall from his wheelchair at the hands of airport staff are suing Delta Air Lines and Los Angeles International Airport over what the family’s lawyer has described as his wrongful death.
Ricardo Lopez Rangel was due to fly from LAX to Honolulu, Hawaii with his wife Elva Lopez Navarro and three children on July 13, 2021, but Ricardo never even made it onboard the Delta aircraft that was supposed to fly them on a dream vacation.
The lawsuit which was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday alleges that Delta personnel told Ricardo that he would have to board the aircraft via a different aircraft door than the other passengers and that none of his family was able to join him to help him board.
Airport and airline workers set up a steep ramp onto the aircraft and then placed Ricardo in his wheelchair on the ramp. Before he could make it onboard the aircraft, the wheelchair fell backwards and off the ramp.
Ricardo fell to the ground and sustained “severe injury” including a head laceration, occipital hematoma, and a fractured skull. He also started to suffer from confused speech and medical records state his “mental status deteriorated within first two hours in (the) ED (Emergency Department)”.
Ricardo’s health, it is claimed, continued to decline until he died on August 26, 2021.
Lawyers allege that the ramp was “unsafe” and “dangerous” and that airport workers hired to get Ricardo on the aircraft “failed to reasonably and safely assist” him.
The steel ramp used had been installed at an “unreasonably high incline and in a manner that had a propensity to cause wheelchairs to fall backwards”. The family say they have suffered a loss of financial support as a result of Ricardo’s negligent death and have asked the court to award them damages for loss of love and affection.
Delta Air Lines has declined to comment on the impending litigation.
The airline says that as part of its commitment to its disabled passengers, an in-house advisory board “promotes accessibility for all of our customers by providing recommendations to Delta related to training, policies, procedures and anything that impacts the travel experience of people with disabilities.”
