A couple narrowly avoided ‘devastating physical injury’ after a watermelon-sized chunk of ice fell from a JetBlue plane as it was coming into land at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and crashed through their bedroom ceiling just inches from their heads as they were sleeping.
The couple bought their dream home in the Inglewood neighborhood of Los Angeles close to LAX in early 2020 and put in hours of work to renovate the property and make it the dream property that they hoped to live in for many years to come.
Now, however, Michael Reese and Leah Ferrarini say they are terrified of going to sleep in their own bed and feel unsafe in their home because they are so scared that another plane might send a block of ice crashing into the property, potentially killing them.
The January 2024 incident has now come to light after Michael and Leah filed a lawsuit against JetBlue in the Superior Court of the State of California, accusing JetBlue of negligence because this wasn’t the first time that the same plane had dropped a block of ice onto someone’s house.
In fact, an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that the seven-year-old Airbus A321 airplane had a history of potable water issues that had caused an ice block to form and drop from the underbelly of the aircraft.
JetBlue should have been aware of the serious nature of this defect as early as July 2023, the lawsuit alleges, because this is when the first ice block fell from the plane and onto a residential property in Shirley, Massachusetts.
Rather than properly investigating the issue, however, the lawsuit claims JetBlue kept the aircraft in service without getting to the root cause of the problem.
If the airline had carried out a more in-depth investigation, it would have found an issue with the potable water valve and drain. This issue was only discovered a month after the January 2024 incident when JetBlue ordered its repair vendor to carry out an in-depth investigation.
“JetBlue had been on notice for months prior to January 1, 2024, yet failed to conduct an investigation as to the problems with the potable water system valve and drain,” the complaint against the New York-based airline alleges.
“Had JetBlue done so after being on notice that there was a problem as early as July 2023, the discharge of the large block of ice on Plaintiffs’ home would not have occurred,” the complaint continues.
Not only did the incident cause severe damage to Michael and Leah’s home, but it has also had a profound and long-lasting effect on their mental health, with the couple saying that they now cringe in fear every time a plane flies overhead – at certain times of day, airplanes fly over their house at low-altitude every five minutes.
As well as suing JetBlue for negligence over the failure to properly investigate and fix the potable water issue with its plane, under California law, Michael and Leah are also bringing an action against the airline for trespass, saying that they never gave JetBlue permission to send a chunk of ice hurtling through their bedroom ceiling.
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