Passenger sues airline for letting him sleep

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A man who fell asleep on a U.S. Airways plane and snoozed through the landing as well as the disembarkation has sued the flight attendants for negligence.

Scott Bender, of Philadelphia, contends he awoke on his own and was so startled by the dark, empty cabin he believed the plane had crashed and he might be dead.

"He literally woke up and didn't know if he was alive or dead," Bender's lawyer, Richard Frankowski, said in Thursday's editions of The Birmingham News. "That was his immediate fear."

Frankowski said Bender, a jewelry salesman, couldn't get his baggage until the next day. The suit, filed last month, said Bender suffered mental and emotional anguish, lost wages and out-of-pocket expenses.

David Castelveter, a U.S. Airways spokesman, declined comment.

The suit said Bender was on a flight from North Carolina that landed at Birmingham International Airport at 10:30 p.m.

Bender claims the crew failed to wake him up and did not adequately check the cabin before turning off the cabin lights and leaving the 50-seat plane.

"Obviously he's a heavy sleeper. You would think landing would wake him up but it didn't," Frankowski said. "He had been traveling for a good portion of the day and he was just worn out."