Fort Belvoir, Va., garrison commander Col. Joe Messina, right, presents awards for excellence to Porscha Brown, center, at Thurman Auditorium, March 26, 2024. (Paul Lara/U.S. Army)
Flight attendants aboard a Korean Air flight two years ago failed to act properly to save a Defense Department employee who died of a heart attack midflight, according to a lawsuit filed recently by the woman’s estate.
Porscha Brown, 33, a safety specialist at the U.S. Army’s Fort Belvoir, Va., died March 29, 2024, of acute cardiac failure, according to the lawsuit filed March 27 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
She was traveling with three companions on Korean Air Flight KE94 from Washington Dulles International Airport to Incheon International Airport when the incident occurred.
According to the lawsuit, Brown began experiencing distress about 12 hours into the 15½-hour flight, clutching her chest and saying, “I can’t breathe.”
The complaint alleges Korean Air personnel “failed to properly administer oxygen” to Brown, claiming the airline’s crew “alternated between panicking, observing, and taking notes” as her condition worsened.
Specifically, flight personnel did not follow industry standards or the airline’s own procedures, the suit alleges. Brown was reportedly given an oxygen mask that was not connected to its tank, and crew members did not use the aircraft’s automated external defibrillator, according to the complaint.
After Brown lost consciousness, crew members placed the defibrillator next to her but “stood by and did nothing,” the lawsuit states. They also failed to assist two passengers who attempted to use the device to save Brown, according to the complaint.
“Consequently, no lifesaving shock was administered to Ms. Brown,” it said.
The suit alleges that flight personnel also failed to timely notify the flight deck of the medical emergency, delaying the plane from diverting to the nearest airport.
The airline maintains that the flight crew “immediately took action to assess the situation and provided the proper medical assistance,” Diane Yang, a spokesperson for Korean Air, told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday. The airline plans to “fully respond to and participate in the legal proceedings,” she said.
“Our sympathies remain with the passenger’s family,” Yang said.
Passenger safety is the company’s highest priority, and cabin crews are “trained to respond to in-flight medical emergencies in accordance with the appropriate standards,” she said.
The flight ultimately made an emergency landing in Osaka, Japan, where Brown was pronounced dead on arrival at Rinku General Medical Center, according to the lawsuit.
Brown’s companions learned later that the flight crew had never plugged the oxygen mask into the tank after the emergency landing, according to the complaint.
Had the airline responded properly to the emergency, Brown “would not have experienced the intense physical and emotional pain” she suffered on the flight and would have likely survived, the complaint added.
The lawsuit did not reveal what caused Brown’s respiratory distress.
According to the lawsuit, Brown received a reward for excellence from the Fort Belvoir garrison commander four days before she died. A Belvoir spokesperson acknowledged but could not immediately answer questions emailed Wednesday in Virginia.
