When what was supposed to be a 20-minute flight turns into two-plus hours of turbulence, it’s easy to understand why a passenger would be peeved. But is worthy of a lawsuit against four airlines?

According to a lawsuit filed this week by a Texas woman, it is.

The plaintiff has sued Continental Airlines, its new partner United, along with Colgan and Pinnacle airlines, because of mental trauma she alleges occurred during an Oct. 2009 flight from College Station, TX, to Houston.

The shoulda-been short flight ended up taking significantly longer as tornadoes and thunderstorms ripped through the area.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Within five to 10 minutes of takeoff for this flight scheduled for 20 minutes, it hit turbulence. The flight took more than two hours “and fell repeatedly, and felt as if it had lost power and was falling out of the sky,” the lawsuit filed Tuesday stated.

The passenger claims that she thought she was going to die during the flight and alleged that the post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted from the incident caused her to not get a job with FEMA that would require air travel.

She’s suing Continental, which sold her the ticket, Colgan Air, which actually operated the flight, Colgan’s parent company Pinnacle Airlines, and United, which recently merged with Continental but was a completely separate airline at the time of the turbulent flight.

The suit seeks damages from all our plaintiffs for physical and mental anguish, and medical bills.

Passenger sues over turbulent flight [Houston Chronicle]

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