## Facts

- Pan American World Airways Flight 759, a Boeing 727, departed from New Orleans International Airport and crashed into a residential area in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all passengers, including Michael H. Haley.
- Michael Haley’s parents sued Pan Am seeking damages for Michael’s pre-impact mental anguish, alleging he consciously experienced fear between the onset of peril and death at impact.
- Physical evidence showed the aircraft’s wing struck a tree about 53 feet above the ground; the aircraft then rolled and disintegrated on impact with the ground roughly four to six seconds later.
- Because there were no survivors, there was no direct testimony about Michael’s subjective awareness or emotions.
- Plaintiffs presented a psychiatrist experienced with survivors of other aviation accidents who opined that passengers would likely experience pandemonium, panic, and extreme stress from the initial collision through impact.
- Pan Am’s expert conceded that passengers would experience violent motion in the final seconds and would be thrown about and struggling to survive.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence, though circumstantial and expert-based, was legally sufficient for a reasonable jury to find that the decedent experienced conscious pre-impact fear and mental anguish.
2. Whether a $15,000 award for at most four to six seconds of pre-impact mental anguish was so excessive as to require reversal, remittitur, or a new trial.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment entered on the jury’s verdict.
- The court held the evidence permitted a reasonable inference that the decedent was conscious, perceived the imminent crash, and experienced pre-impact fear.
- The court held the $15,000 award was not so excessive as to warrant appellate intervention, given the likely intensity of terror and the deference owed to the jury and trial court.

## Legal Principles

- Damages may be awarded for a decedent’s conscious pre-death mental anguish, including pre-impact terror, when supported by sufficient proof that the decedent was aware of impending disaster.
- Conscious pre-impact fear may be established through circumstantial evidence (physical sequence, duration, and violence of events) and expert testimony; direct eyewitness testimony is not required.
- Appellate review of pain-and-suffering or mental-anguish awards is highly deferential; an award will be disturbed only if it is so excessive or unreasonable as to shock the conscience or reflect an abuse of discretion in denying a new trial or remittitur.
- The brevity of the interval before death does not bar recovery where the evidence supports an inference of intense fear during that period.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a jury award for a passenger’s pre-impact terror in a fatal crash, ruling that consciousness and fear could be inferred from the crash’s physical sequence and expert testimony, and that $15,000 for several seconds of extreme anguish was not excessive under deferential appellate review.


Haley v. Pan Am. World Airways, Inc., 746 F.2d 311 (5th Cir. 1984)