Team USA Judo coach 'suffers permanent vision loss' after freak mishap aboard JetBlue flight

Daily Mail​

20-07-2025

A Team USA judo coach has allegedly 'suffered permanent vision loss' in one eye after a JetBlue flight attendant splashed scalding coffee into his face mid-flight.
Arturas Lanchinskas, 30, a third-degree black belt, was flying to Lima, Peru to coach the US team at the Pan American Judo Championships in July 2023 when the freak accident occurred.
The martial arts instructor and owner of Darfight Martial Arts in Brooklyn, was seated aboard JetBlue Flight 1825 when a flight attendant dropped a pot of burning hot coffee she was serving.
The scalding hot liquid, which was spilled accidentally, burned his face and right eye, according to the lawsuit obtained by Dailymail.com.
'As a result of the hot coffee splashing onto Plaintiff's face and into his eye, he was caused to sustain severe burns to the right side of his face and severe injuries to his right eye,' the lawsuit states.
'It felt like a surge of fire hit the surface of my eyeball,' Lanchinskas told The New York Post. 'The pain was sharp and immediate, like a burning needle.'
The passenger next to him happened to be a doctor and urged him to flush his eye repeatedly with water.
But instead of helping, the plaintiff alleges that the flight attendants grew irritated with him for frequenting the restroom too often.
His attorney, Erin R. Applebaum, who is representing him, said in the suit that the flight attendants were complaining that other passengers needed to use the bathroom.
'He was even told, 'Sir, you're not the only one on the airplane, we have other guests who need to use the facilities,'' Applebaum claimed in the suit.
Once the plane landed, Lanchinskas was rushed to a local hospital in Lima, where doctors treated the burns to his face and eye.
But the damage was permanent.
When he returned to New York, eye doctors diagnosed him with a thermal injury and chemical burn to his right eye.
The injury left him with permanent sensitivity to light and a reduced field of vision, Applebaum said.
The lawsuit states JetBlue is liable to pay 'full, fair and reasonable damages to Plaintiff, Arturas Lanchinskas, pursuant to the Montreal Convention,' which governs airline liability for injuries during international travel.
In June, five shaken American Airlines passengers and flight attendants were taken to the hospital after being injured by extreme turbulence on the way to North Carolina.
'Unexpected' disturbance' hit on flight 1286, traveling from Miami to Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Sudden altitude drops sent laptops, cellphones and other personal items flying through the aircraft - forcefully striking those aboard.
Passengers alleged they saw a man knocked unconscious, a flight attendant scorched by spilled boiling water from a drink cart and another who sustained a broken arm.