Video shows scary moment pilot’s foot is ‘swallowed’ by moving walkway, lawsuit says
A pilot is suing a mobility product company after his foot was “swallowed” in a moving walkway at a Colorado airport, a lawsuit says.
Surveillance video shows the moment in November 2022 when Delta pilot Ken Gow collapsed at the end of the walkway at Denver International Airport. He “suddenly felt a surge of pain in his foot,” then “looked over and saw that his foot and shoe had been swallowed by the walkway as it was missing a plate,” the lawsuit says.
Photos show the cavity under the missing plate where Gow’s foot was caught, as well as the damage to his shoe and sock.
TK Elevator Corporation was responsible for maintaining and repairing the moving walkway at the time, and the company’s failure to maintain it properly “posed an unreasonable risk of injury to passengers,” the lawsuit says.
Gow’s foot was “rolled up and compressed” in the moving walkway, the lawsuit says. He continued having “severe pain” in his foot throughout physical therapy for his injuries, which included inflammation in the joints and tendons of his left foot, a strained Achilles tendon and a contusion in the foot, the lawsuit, filed in December in the U.S. District Court in Colorado, says.
Still, Gow is lucky he wasn’t hurt worse, his attorney, Brian Aleinikoff, told McClatchy News in an email.
“It was fortunate that Mr. Gow was wearing a pretty hefty shoe,” Aleinikoff told KUSA. “It’s fortunate that he didn’t lose his toes.”
Gow and his attorney later discovered others had been injured in similar incidents with the company’s equipment, which TK Elevator Corporation should have been aware of, the lawsuit says.
TK Elevator Corporation did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Feb. 1.
In a statement, Denver International Airport said: “The safety of our passengers and employees is always a top priority and we work diligently every day in partnership with our contractors to address issues.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Video shows scary moment pilot’s foot is ‘swallowed’ by moving walkway, lawsuit says."
