A judge is expected to give final approval Monday to a nearly $79 million settlement reached by Delta Air Lines in a class-action lawsuit over a 2020 fuel dump that doused tens of thousands of properties, including homes and schools, in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Delta has denied wrongdoing in the incident.
The settlement will be distributed among 38,000 property owners and residents, attorneys said.
Filippo Marchino, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the agreement was fair and reasonable.
“We are especially pleased to obtain this result for residents of the Southeast Los Angeles communities, comprised of hard-working families who asked only for respect and just treatment and rightly deserve this result,” the attorney said in a statement sent to City News Service after reaching the agreement with Delta.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt is expected to give his approval at a hearing Monday in Los Angeles federal court.
The case stemmed from a January 2020 incident in which a Delta flight to Shanghai from Los Angeles International Airport lost thrust shortly after takeoff. The pilots jettisoned about 15,000 pounds of jet fuel from the Boeing 777 before returning to LAX.
A Federal Aviation Administration investigation later cleared the pilots of wrongdoing, according to Delta.
Property owners argued that the pilots needlessly dumped fuel at a low altitude over densely populated areas, instead of dumping it over the Pacific Ocean or at a high altitude so it would dissipate, or by burning fuel by flying in a holding pattern.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis issued a statement calling the settlement “a long-overdue acknowledgment of the harm inflicted on working families, schoolchildren, and educators in Bell, Cudahy, and surrounding Southeast Los Angeles communities.”
“What happened that day was nothing short of an environmental injustice,” she said. “Jet fuel was dumped without warning over neighborhoods already overburdened by chronic air pollution, heavy industry, and decades of environmental neglect. This was the result of poor judgment and disregard for the health and safety of communities that have historically been treated as expendable.”
During the incident, jet fuel “rained down on playgrounds, schoolyards, and homes,” Solis said.
“Children were burned. Teachers were forced to care for students in crisis with no notice and no protective equipment. Families were left to navigate the aftermath with few answers and no accountability. … We must ensure this never happens again.”