PIA faces $3 million civil suit

Two Tinian residents are seeking payment of $1 million each from the Pacific Islands Aviation for alleged psychological trauma they have been experiencing since the PIA plane that took them to Guam crash landed in 1998.

On top of this, Rosita C. Palacios and Carleen P. Mendiola are asking for punitive damages amounting to $1 million in a civil complaint they filed before the Superior Court through their lawyer Joshua A. Berger. They want the court to hold a jury trial on the island-municipality of Tinian.

The two women took the PIA Tinian-Guam flight on Dec. 8, 1998 to do some Christmas shopping in Guam during the day and come back to Tinian in the evening.

However, the aircraft’s landing gear failed to operate when it was about to land in Guam forcing the plane to circle Won Pat International Airport several times before it finally crash landed. The two women claimed there was even a loud explosion and smoke coming from fuselage.

As a result of this, both Ms. Palacios and Ms. Mendiola said they sustained emotional distress, psychological trauma, shock to their nervous systems and post traumatic stress syndrome.

More than a year since the incident occurred, the two women said they continue to experience mental distress such as frequent nightmares, lack of concentration, headaches, anxiety attacks, aggravation of hypertension problems, nausea, insomnia and other physical illness.

According to Ms. Mendiola and Ms. Palacios, failure of PIA to inspect the aircraft prior to its scheduled flight would have shown that it was not in proper condition at that time.

They added that the flight attendant even failed to assist the passengers in locating the emergency exits inside the plane after the crash. In addition, they were abandoned at Guam Airport and were not offered medical treatment.

“PIA has engaged in a pattern and practice of improperly maintaining the aircraft which operated in the CNMI,” the civil complaint said.

All the allegations were denied by PIA management in the answer to the civil complaint they filed in the court.

PIA said the two women did not understand the meaning of the term “crash landed.” Most of all, the airline was not responsible for the alleged injuries they sustained.