Passengers Of Southwest Crash Sue Airline, City and Boeing

CHICAGO (Reuters) — Two passengers on a Southwest Airlines plane that skidded off a runway earlier this month, killing one person, have sued the airline, Boeing Co. and the city of Chicago , their lawyer said Tuesday. The passengers, Mariko Bennett and Stanley Penn, claim to have sustained injuries when the Boeing 737-700 aircraft plunged through a fence-like barrier and onto a busy street, killing a child riding in a car. Southwest spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said the company had not yet received the lawsuit, which accuses the airline of negligence and conscious disregard for safety. "The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation is ongoing and no cause has been determined yet," she said. Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the planemaker had not yet seen the complaint and that in any case it had a policy of not commenting on lawsuits.