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.
That report found the resulting damage was limited to landing gear, wheels, tires and brakes and, therefore, is not considered to be substantial. Frontier did not provide an immediate comment on the Dominguez-Torres lawsuit, per the Review-Journal's reporting.
Other Passengers Have Also Sued
Dominguez and Torres are not the only passengers from Flight 1326 to take Frontier to court. Clark County resident Alphonso Gibbs filed his own negligence lawsuit, claiming an abnormally hard landing left him with neck and back injuries, and he is seeking general damages exceeding $15,000 along with medical expenses, lost earnings and other costs, the same outlet's earlier report noted.
Several other passengers also sued Frontier in October 2024, and that case remains pending in U.S. District Court. Together, the filings paint a picture of a single flight that has generated a string of separate legal claims against the airline, even as the underlying cause of the chemical odor that filled the cabin remains under investigation, according to Simple Flying.
