A pregnant flight attendant has filed a lawsuit against a coffee company after she was left with severe burns when a “defective” coffee maker exploded and spewed boiling water and grounds on her. On March 27, attorneys for Alaska Airlines’ Victoria Waldron filed a civil complaint against Stumptown Coffee Corp in the Western District of Washington in Seattle.

The lawsuit accused the coffee company of supplying the airline with a defective product that caused Ms Waldron’s injuries and failing to warn of potential risks despite many similar accidents with Stumptown’s product. The court filing said that on April 1, 2024, Ms Waldron was working on an Alaska Airlines flight bound for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Arizona, when, just 30 minutes before landing, she was brewing a custom coffee blend supplied by Stumptown that was designed to be consumed at altitude, the complaint stated.

That is when “an onboard coffee maker in the aircraft galley suddenly and without warning failed catastrophically, expelling scalding hot coffee, coffee grounds, and boiling water with explosive force,” the lawsuit stated. “[Waldron] was struck by the expelled hot liquid and grounds, sustaining immediate and severe thermal burns to her chest and other areas of her body.”

The injuries were extremely painful, and the pregnant flight attendant feared for her unborn child, the filing said, adding that Ms Waldron now has permanent scarring and a persistent “heat-triggered rash”. The civil complaint also stated that Waldron will need ongoing dermatological treatment and may need cosmetic surgery for the scarring.

In the filing, Ms Waldron’s attorneys argued that their client’s injuries were preventable because there had been ample signs that Stumptown’s coffee blend was defective and prone to exploding. The coffee company entered into an agreement in 2023 to supply the major US airline with a custom coffee blend and began supplying the product on December 1 of that year.

The civil complaint said that Stumptown had tested its custom coffee blend for taste at altitude but had not adequately adjusted or tested its packaging design for the low-pressure environment of a plane cabin. The low-pressure environment, combined with the unique heat cycles of commercial brewing equipment on planes, caused the packaging, which had been designed for use at sea level, to “behave in a materially dangerous manner,” the complaint alleged.

The lawsuit claimed that Stumptown was, or should have been aware, of the issue with its product, as on February 20, 2024, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) published a statement – less than three months after adopting the blend – stating that at least nine flight attendants had been burned by exploding coffee on board Alaska Airlines flights.

The AFA’s statement highlighted that Stumptown’s packaging was the “suspected” cause of the sudden rise in injuries, as Alaska Airlines had recently begun using the company’s blend instead of one produced by Starbucks, whose packaging type, material, structure and pressure tolerance, the lawsuit said, “differed materially from the […] product it replaced”.

Despite the signs, “Stumptown took no corrective action, issued no warning to Alaska Airlines, recalled no product, and continued to supply the same packaging to Alaska Airlines without modification,” the civil complaint said. The lawsuit has not stated a specific sum of money it is seeking from Stumptown, though it noted it would exceed $75,000 (£56,300).

Waldron’s attorneys will pursue damages for their client’s ‘physical pain and suffering,’ as well as her burns, scars, emotional distress, medical expenses, lost earnings and legal fees. The complaint demanded a jury trial. Stumptown has not yet replied to any allegations in court.

The Express has contacted Stumptown Coffee Corp for comment.