An Alaska Airlines flight attendant is suing the maker of the Seattle-based carrier’s in-flight coffee bags after a series of incidents in which the bags suddenly and unexpectedly ‘exploded’, spewing boiling hot water and coffee grounds at crew members, and leaving them with serious burn injuries.
Victoria Waldron, who was pregnant at the time, was one of 10 Alaska Airlines flight attendants who were injured by the exploding coffee bags. She is now suing the maker of the coffee bag, Stumptown Coffee, based in Portland.
Alaska Airlines chose Stumptown Coffee as its exclusive in-flight coffee supplier in late 2023 after ditching a long-running partnership with Starbucks. Launched to much fanfare, Stumptown designed a custom coffee blend designed to taste “amazing” at 30,000 feet.
Described as having aromatic notes of toasted marshmallows, browned butter, and toffee with delicate hints of citrus and cherry, the custom Stumptown blend was tested at altitude for taste, but, according to Waldron’s recently filed lawsuit, the bags were never tested to ensure they were safe for use in aircraft galley coffee makers.
In fact, the bags were materially different from the ones used by Starbucks, and Waldron’s attorney believes Stumptown relied on bags used in food and retail distribution at sea level.
But with commercial aircraft pressurized to around 8,000 feet, the conditions these bags endured in a commercial aircraft brewer were “materially different” from those experienced on the ground.
The Stumptown coffee bags were introduced in December 2023, and within weeks, there were reports of them suffering “explosive failures,” causing burn injuries to several Alaska Airlines flight attendants.
In many cases, the bags would swell inside the coffee brewer to the point of bursting, expelling scalding hot coffee and coffee grounds on anyone within the vicinity of the brewer.
In one case, however, a flight attendant was injured when she went to remove the bag from the pot, and it exploded over her wrist.
By February 2024, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) had raised its serious concerns about the Stumptown coffee bags, and Alaska Airlines had been in contact with Stumptown about the ongoing issues.
According to the lawsuit filed in a federal district court in Washington state last week, Stumptown “took no corrective action” and the bags remained onboard.
On April 1, 2024, Waldron was working a flight to Phoenix Sky Harbor when a coffee brewer “catastrophically” failed, spewing out scalding hot coffee with explosive force onto her chest and other parts of her body.
Waldron believes the Stumptown coffee bag was the reason that the brewer failed with such spectacular force.
Since the incident, Waldron has been left with permanent burn scarring on her chest. She is claiming an unspecified amount in compensatory damages, medical expenses, and loss of wages.
Interestingly, Alaska Airlines is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, given that it might also be reasonable to conclude that the carrier was negligent in allowing the use of the allegedly defective Stumptown coffee bags.
