4 Sue Southwest Airlines Over Crash at Burbank

Four passengers sued Southwest Airlines on Friday for physical and emotional injuries suffered last year when their jet careened off a runway, broke through a concrete barrier and skidded to a stop on a Burbank street.

The three-page lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs were injured by “abnormal G-forces and trauma,” suffered “extreme upset, fear and anxiety of impending injury or death” during landing and were “imprisoned” in the aircraft after the crash.

In March 2000, a Southwest Boeing 737, arriving from Las Vegas, overshot the runway at Burbank Airport and was unable to stop before crashing through the concrete barrier and skidding onto Hollywood Way. At the time, authorities said four of the flight’s 137 passengers and two crew members were slightly injured. They complained of back, neck and stomach pain and were taken to hospitals.

One of the four plaintiffs was among the passengers taken to the hospital after the crash, said Robin McCall, a law firm spokeswoman.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages and also names as defendants the aircraft’s pilot and co-pilot.

“These pilots came in too high and too fast,” attorney Paul Hedlund said in a statement. “If they had followed procedure and aborted the landing, they would not have been risking the lives of so many people.”

An airline spokesman declined to comment Friday, saying he was unaware of the lawsuit.

Southwest fired the pilot and co-pilot in August.

The Burbank crash was the most serious for the 30-year-old airline, which has never had a fatality.