Woman Hurt in Evacuation Test of Jet Sues McDonnell

A 60-year-old Long Beach woman who broke her neck during a jetliner evacuation test at McDonnell Douglas last October and was left a quadriplegic sued the firm Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Dorothy Myles, who was paid $49 by McDonnell along with 54 other test participants, alleges in her suit that the firm failed to warn her adequately about the possibility of serious injury or to tell her that 28 people were injured in an identical drill earlier the same day.

The test was required by the Federal Aviation Adminstration to certify the MD-11 jetliner to carry 400 passengers. McDonnell failed both evacuation tests and has vowed not to undertake another test.

Myles was the most seriously injured person in the two tests and is the first to file suit. The case also names as a defendant Air Cruisers, the French firm that made the evacuation slide.

“After that first drill, the bottom of that evacuation slide must have looked like downtown Baghdad, because there were 10 paramedic units down there and 23 injured people who required hospital care,” said Gary B. Fleischman, Myles’ attorney. “They sent this woman to a war zone without telling her of those previous injuries.”

McDonnell officials did not return phone calls.

Fleischman said he intends to file a separate claim against the FAA, which allowed the second evacuation drill.