Two Clark County residents are suing Frontier Airlines over a 2024 flight that ended with dense smoke in the cabin, a hard landing at Harry Reid International Airport, and what they describe as a nearly hour-long wait before anyone could get off the plane. Janneth Dominguez and Martin Torres say they were passengers aboard Frontier Flight 1326, traveling from San Diego to Las Vegas, when the aircraft made an emergency landing on Oct. 5, 2024.
The pair filed their negligence lawsuit in Nevada District Court and are demanding a jury trial, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Their complaint accuses the Denver-based carrier of negligence and invokes res ipsa loquitur, and it claims Frontier failed to properly repair, inspect or maintain the aircraft in a reasonably safe condition.
Smoke, Heat and a Sudden Drop
According to the lawsuit, the flight crew identified a chemical smell of unidentified origin and detected dense smoke filling the cabin as the plane descended toward Las Vegas. The complaint alleges passengers were subjected to the dense smoke, heat, a sudden drop and a violent landing impact.
Perhaps the most striking allegation in the filing is that passengers were not evacuated from the plane for nearly an hour after it touched down. The complaint also states that oxygen masks were not deployed in the cabin for passengers — a detail that conflicts with a separate account reported by FOX5 Vegas, which said oxygen masks were dropped for passengers. The dossier does not resolve which account is accurate.
What Investigators Found
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found no injuries among the 197 passengers and crew members aboard the flight. Investigators attributed the incident to a brake fire caused by a fault in the fan unit that cools the avionics compartment, the same report cited by the Review-Journal in its earlier coverage…