Woman sues American Airlines over burns to ‘genital area’ from in-flight coffee spill

A passenger aboard an American Airlines flight is suing the carrier over claims her genitalia was badly burned when a scalding pot of coffee fell off a serving cart and into her lap during turbulence. Gina Mason, 68, was flying home from Baltimore to Detroit on February 11 when the captain came over the PA system and asked everyone in the cabin to take their seats due to bumpy air up ahead, according to a lawsuit filed August 13 in Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Court and removed to Detroit federal court last week. The suit says the flight attendants were in the middle of distributing beverages and snacks throughout the cabin when the turbulence began, and one of them parked their cart next to Mason, who was buckled up in seat 29A, then went to sit down. “During the turbulence, the beverage cart was shaking which resulted in the hot coffee pot that was left on top of the cart to fall off into [Mason’s] lap, causing her to sustain severe 1st and 2nd degree burns over her legs, thighs, and genital area,” the complaint states. Mason is not the first airline passenger to claim damages in court from a hot beverage fiasco at 30,000 feet. In February, a woman flying Korean Air from New York City to Seoul sued after a flight attendant “spilled a… cup of boiling hot coffee on [her] lap, causing her to sustain grievous personal injuries near her genital area,” according to a civil complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court.<br/>