Alaska Air, Delta must face lawsuit over Seattle airport pollution

Alaska Air Group and Delta Air Lines have lost their bid to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that emissions from their aircraft at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are responsible for a deadly mixture of toxic pollution. U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle on Monday rejected the airlines' arguments that federal law governing airline routes and clean air standards preempted state-law claims pursued by individuals who live near the airport. Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, in an email called the ruling "a first step toward environmental justice for this class." Delta in a statement said it was "carefully reviewing the court's ruling and next steps." Alaska Air declined to comment. The plaintiffs in the proposed class action are seeking to represent home owners and residents living within a five-mile radius of Sea-Tac Airport in what their lawyers call the facility's "Contamination Zone." The area has more than 300,000 residents and includes the Seattle suburbs of Burien, Des Moines, SeaTac and Tukwila. The plaintiffs say that in that zone, rates of cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory disease are higher than in nearby areas. In a lawsuit filed in April 2023, the residents alleged that pollution produced by the two main airlines at Sea-Tac, Alaska and Delta, included carbon monoxide, lead and particulate matter and was linked to hundreds of deaths every year. They said the pollution was pervasive enough that soot-like sediment would build up on their roofs, yards and cars and that the communities that were harmed were disproportionately low income and racial minorities.<br/>