Southwest flight attendant caused Florida hotel flooding, nearly $217K in damage
A Fort Lauderdale hotel is suing Southwest Airlines and one among its flight attendants, alleging the worker set off a sprinkler system in a visitor room and caused in depth flooding that pressured the property to cancel reservations and produce in cleanup crews.
According to a lawsuit entered in federal court docket April 8, seventeenth Street Hotel LLC, which does enterprise because the Renaissance Hotel Fort Lauderdale, says the incident occurred on or about Feb. 1, 2025, whereas a Southwest flight attendant was staying on the hotel for work. The criticism alleges the attendant “negligently interfered” with a fireplace sprinkler in the room, despite the fact that the hotel had an indication warning company to not tamper with the system.
The lawsuit says the sprinkler discharged and flooded not solely the room occupied by the flight attendant, however a number of different rooms in the hotel. The hotel claims it suffered damages together with restore prices, remediation, lack of use and misplaced earnings.
The hotel additional alleges that it inspected the sprinkler after the incident and located no malfunction, concluding that the discharge was caused by tampering.
Fort Lauderdale’s Renaissance Hotel is suing Southwest Airlines, a flight attendant triggered a fireplace sprinkler that flooded a number of rooms, canceled reservations and caused nearly $217,000 in damage. (AP Photo/Matt York, FILE)
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In the go well with, the hotel accuses the flight attendant, recognized as Jade Tsougas, of negligence. It additionally seeks to carry Southwest Airlines accountable, alleging Tsougas was performing inside the course and scope of her employment as a result of she was staying on the hotel as a part of her work task. The criticism additionally alleges Southwest was independently negligent for failing to correctly instruct or supervise its workers.
The hotel says the flooding disrupted operations, caused canceled reservations and required outdoors crews for cleanup. It is in search of nearly $217,000 in damages, in keeping with the submitting.
Southwest, by means of an lawyer, filed a discover of look in the case in March, in keeping with court docket data included in the federal submitting.
A case administration convention in the underlying Broward County case was scheduled for June 2, court docket data present.
