A man is suing American Airlines after he said the airline delayed medical attention for his 62-year-old father on a flight — a move he claims led to his father’s death.
The father, John William Cannon, was traveling from Louisville, Kentucky, to Durango, Colorado, on April 28, 2023, to celebrate the life of his late girlfriend, who had died the month prior, Joe LoRusso, an attorney for the plaintiff, told HuffPost. But, after experiencing medical emergencies on two different planes throughout his journey, he was pronounced dead later that night.
In a complaint filed this week and obtained by HuffPost, Kyle Cannon, the son of the deceased, argues that American Airlines delayed helping his father, ultimately leading to his death. The lawsuit is now seeking at least $75,000 in damages.
American Airlines said they are reviewing the complaint but did not provide additional comment on the allegations to HuffPost.
John Cannon boarded his American Airlines flight at 12:30 p.m. on April 28. He was heading toward his layover at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and, according to the complaint, he lost consciousness during the flight and/or deboarding.
Airport or airline crew members then helped him to the gate for his next flight, the complaint said. He was allegedly released in under three minutes for his connecting flight to Durango, Colorado, with Envoy Air, which is a subsidiary of American Airlines Group.
Once again, he lost consciousness during the flight and/or during deboarding.
(American Airlines has not released any details about the timeline of events to Cannon’s family, LoRusso said, making it unclear at which points exactly Cannon lost consciousness. All details in the complaint come from reports from the airport and emergency medical services, he said.)
“Despite Mr. Cannon’s escalating medical crisis, the AAL4896 flight crew delayed requesting medical assistance until after the aircraft had landed, taxied to the gate, and all other passengers had deplaned,” the complaint alleged. “At 1604 hours, a crew member of AAL4896 called emergency services and reported Mr. Cannon as being in and out of consciousness with labored breathing.”
Durango Fire and Rescue then arrived and began administering aid to Cannon aboard the plane. Emergency service workers began to transport him to a hospital, with an ambulance crew giving him chest compressions, epinephrine and multiple defibrillator shocks, but his heart did not start pumping again normally, according to the complaint.
Cannon was pronounced dead at 1:29 a.m. on April 29.
His family’s lawsuit is now arguing that he never should have been allowed onto the connecting flight while he was having a medical crisis, that the airline failed to give him first aid while onboard and that the crew failed to prioritize deboarding him and getting him medical attention.
“The circumstances of this case represent a tangible manifestation of a corporate culture at American Airlines that prioritizes inaction over intervention,” attorneys for Cannon’s son said in a statement to HuffPost. “This ingrained culture, to which John Cannon tragically fell victim, underscores a systemic issue the family is determined to address, both in seeking justice for John and in advocating for broader organizational change.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, medical emergencies happen on about 1 in every 604 commercial flights.
In 2018, the family of 25-year-old Brittany Oswell filed a wrongful death lawsuit against American Airlines, also alleging the flight crew chose not to make an emergency landing after she lost consciousness and vomited on the plane. She died three days later. The suit was later dismissed, according to The Washington Post.
More recently, the family of 14-year-old Kevin Greenidge sued American Airlines for wrongful death after the teenager suffered from cardiac arrest on a flight from Honduras to Miami. The suit is ongoing.