American Airlines sued by family of woman who died on plane after pilots refused to divert flight

Lawsuit claims pilots ignored on-board doctor's advice

A US woman’s family is suing American Airlines after she died on one of its flights two years ago.

Brittany Oswell, a 25-year-old nurse from South Carolina, was taken ill on a flight from Honolulu in Hawaii to Dallas, Texas on April 15 2016.

According to the lawsuit, the pilot ignored the recommendation of a doctor on board and refused to divert the plane, instead continuing on to Dallas.

Ms Oswell started to feel unwell around three hours into the flight, according to the lawsuit.

She was flying with her husband of less than a year, Cory, who paged cabin crew when she started to become dizzy and disorientated and then fainted.

Staff found a doctor on board who examined Ms Oswell; at this point it was thought she was having a panic attack, according to the lawsuit.

A few hours later, the situation quickly worsened as flight attendants found her unconscious in one of the aircraft’s toilets, having vomited and defecated on herself.

The lawsuit claims that at this point the doctor advised that the plane be immediately diverted so that Ms Oswell could receive proper care.

However, the captain allegedly ignored this advice having consulted one of American Airlines’ physicians on the ground, and continued flying the 90 minutes it would take to reach Dallas.

Brittany Oswell had been married for less than year when she died (Facebook/Brittany Oswell)

At some point during this time, Ms Oswell’s heart stopped and she ceased breathing.

The doctor attempted to take her blood pressure but the cuffs provided were faulty, as was the on board defibrillator that they attempted to use three times to restart her heart – “no shock was administered,” claims the lawsuit.

The pilots were asked again if the flight could be diverted but, after another consultation with the on-the-ground doctor, decided to continue on to the original destination, now 45 minutes away.

The doctor and crew members continued to perform CPR on Ms Oswell during that time.

She failed to regain consciousness, and was transferred to Baylor Medical Center as soon as the plane landed at Dallas.

She was diagnosed with anoxic brain damage and an acute embolism, and was taken off life support three days later on 18 April 2016.

“We absolutely felt like this was not taken very seriously,” Tina Starks, Ms Oswell’s mother, told ABC News. “She’s no longer here to do anything with us and it’s all because someone made a business decision to keep flying a plane when she needed emergency medical help that they could not provide because of inadequacies on board the flight.“

Chris Starks, Ms Oswell’s father, added: “One person makes a decision and it changes our whole life, our outcome, everything.”

American Airlines said in a statement: ”We take the safety of our passengers very seriously and we are looking into the details of the complaint.“