"Lawsuit claims dead airplane passenger's body not found until hours after jet landed"

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Lawsuit claims dead airplane passenger's body not found until hours after jet 
landed
The Associated Press


INDIANAPOLIS - An airline passenger died in the restroom during a flight from 
Tokyo and was not found until the cleaning crew boarded the plane after it 
landed, a federal lawsuit contends.

The passenger, Taisuke Matsuo, 66, apparently had a heart attack on an American 
Airlines flight to Chicago — the first leg of a trip home to Indianapolis, 
according to the lawsuit filed Monday by his wife, Carolyn D. Watts.

The lawsuit accuses American Airlines of negligence and seeks damages of about 
$150,000 (€111,790), The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.

After the plane landed at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on April 13, 
2005, passengers and flight crew disembarked and the jet was taken to another 
gate for cleaning. Workers then discovered the bathroom was locked from the 
inside and found Matsuo's body — about two hours after the jet landed.

Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines in Fort Worth, Texas, said the 
company does not comment on pending litigation.

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