NEW YORK Dec 22 (Reuters) - A New York man is suing
Delta Air Lines and Air France-KLM for $10 million for
injuries he says he sustained while helping to stop the
so-called "underwear bomber" from blowing up a plane on
Christmas Day 2009.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan on
Wednesday, Theophilus Maranga says he "risked his life" by
jumping on the would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a
Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound flight
from Amsterdam with a bomb stashed in his underwear.
Abdulmutallab's clothes caught fire after he tried to
detonate the explosives.
The lawsuit said Maranga lost a tooth and suffered
injuries to his ribs, permanent numbness in his hands and a
pain in his neck that hampers his movements. It accuses
Delta Air Lines and Air France-KLM, who are in
an airline alliance, of negligence for "allowing a bomber
to board their aircraft with an explosive device."
Maranga's attorney, Neil Grimaldi, called his client a
"hero" in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.
"Here's a guy who saves an airliner, saves hundreds of
people's lives, gets hurt and they want to play cheap," Grimaldi
said.
Grimaldi said Maranga had attempted to make a claim through
a federal aviation insurance program, but that the settlement
offered was insubstantial.
Maranga's work as an immigration attorney in Wappinger
Falls, New York, has been hampered by the injuries, Grimaldi
said. Maranga is also being treated for "numerous psychological
injuries" resulting from his act, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also names Abdulmutallab, who has confessed to
attempting to bomb the plane, as a defendant.
He is in prison awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in
October to eight felonies, including conspiracy to commit an act
of terrorism, attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of
mass destruction. He could not be reached for comment.
Abdulmutallab has said he wanted to blow up Northwest
Airlines Flight 253, which had 290 people aboard as it
approached Detroit to avenge the killing of innocent Muslims by
the United States. Delta owned Northwest at the time of the
incident.
A Delta spokeswoman said the airline does not comment on
pending litigation. Air France-KLM did not respond to a request
for comment on Thursday.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen)
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