Passenger Death on Plane: Where Does Airline Liability End when it Comes to Its Passengers?

The family of a forty four year old Haitian lady is now in Mourning. Corine Desir was on a flight from Haiti to New York according to ABC news when she started complaining to her cousin that she was encountering problems breathing. She pleaded with her cousin not to let her die but to get her some oxygen. The cousin summoned help from the flight attendants. They provided oxygen tanks while a passenger on the plane, a medical doctor proceeded to administer the oxygen. Desir's cousin alleges that the doctor said there was no oxygen present in the tanks. However, in a formal report given by the doctor his exact words were that he did attempt to supply oxygen to the passenger, however, he is unable to verify the level of oxygen that was present in the tanks.

American Airlines has since denied such reports further stating that there were twelve operating tanks on the aircraft. American Airline also said that they are forced to divert their flights several times a week due to ill passengers. While the aircrafts are supplied with medications on board to be used by any medical personnel among passengers flight attendants are limited to what they are trained to do. They are not allowed to administer IV's or most of these medications. They are however trained to administer CPR and use defibrillators on distressed passengers. While American Airlines was the first airline to equip all their aircrafts with defibrilators saving at least eight lives in heart complications, they were quoted as saying they are not a flying hospital.