Frontier Airlines sued for lack of defibrillator

November 8, 2001

Christine Stone, of Middlesex, Massachusetts, has sued Frontier Airlines for failing to have a defibrillator on board when her husband, Brett Stone, went into cardiac arrest. Mr. Stone, a 28-year-old venture capitalist, succumbed during a flight from Boston to Denver on July 27, 2000. Though two passengers, a physician and a medical technician, tried to save him, Stone died before the plane landed.

According to the claim, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on October 19th, “Had the emergency medical kit on Flight 419 been equipped with an AED (automated external defibrillator), the physician, medical technician or a flight attendant would have saved Mr. Stone’s life.” The wrongful death lawsuit seeks $20 million.

At the time of Stone’s death, airlines were not required to carry AEDs. Frontier Airlines equipped all its airlines with defibrillators in January.

(Associated Press and Denver Post)