BATON ROUGE - A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by two Baton Rouge residents alleges a flight managed by Southwest Airlines flew directly into a dangerous thunderstorm, causing life-threatening turbulence in the name of minimizing fuel consumption and managing a timely departure. 

The lawsuit filed through Rapoport Weisberg Sims and Vanoverloop Trial Attorneys says the two residents, Deborah "Debi" Grymes and Amy Berret, were aboard a flight on Apr. 3, 2024. The flight from Louisiana to Florida flew directly through a thunderstorm, penetrating a "red-cell" above the Gulf. 

"Instead of planning a safe route that would have taken the aircraft safely around the dangerous line of thunderstorms, Southwest’s dispatchers and pilots instead chose to fly through the thunderstorm line, which the passengers allege 'may have been influenced by defendant’s management’s emphasis on timely departure and minimizing fuel consumption,'" the release sent out Wednesday morning said. 

Grymes was allowed to make her way to the plane lavatory during the turbulence at a time when the flight attendants were also up and about. While she was up, the plane hit severe turbulence and other passengers aboard the plane reported Grymes was "violently thrown about the cabin." She received a traumatic brain injury, spine fractures and broken ribs. Since the flight she has undergone multiple surgeries and remains partially disabled. 

Berret was also injured during the turbulence, suffering a neck and closed head injury. 

State Climatologist Jay Grymes, Grymes' husband, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. He claims his wife's injuries have had a significant impact on their household. 

Attorney Melanie VanOverloop added: “We have reason to believe that Southwest’s emphasis on timely departures and fuel costs may have played a role in Southwest’s decision to try and take a shortcut through a thunderstorm line, adding other Southwest flights also penetrated the same squall line that morning. Such decisions are completely inexcusable in a situation where the National Weather Service had warned the airline of the dangerous thunderstorm line. There was nothing stopping flight 4273 from simply flying around the thunderstorms.”