As JetBlue flight 321 from Boston to Palm Beach International Airport came to a stop at the arrivals gate last April, John Allen Fletcher suffered a massive stroke.
When Fletcher, an 89-year-old Vietnam veteran who spent more than two decades in the U.S. Air Force before embarking on a second career building jet fighter engines for Pratt and Whitney, stood up to get his carry-on bag, he immediately collapsed back into his seat, according to a wrongful death lawsuit his daughter filed in January.
Sprawled across the second row of the cabin as the other passengers deplaned, Fletcher “remained immobilized in his seat unable to speak clearly, his balance impaired, his vision affected, and otherwise exhibiting the classic signs of a stroke,” the lawsuit states. It says Fletcher was “in full view” of the flight crew, who allowed everyone else to get off the aircraft while ignoring the “obvious existence of a medical emergency.”
And although Fletcher was wearing a MedicAlert necklace with his daughter’s name and contact info on it, the JetBlue employees “made no effort to contact her or any other family members,” the suit contends.
To maximize the chances of saving a stroke victim’s life, they must receive medical attention as soon as possible. Yet, the crew called for a “non-emergency wheelchair attendant” to come to the gate and remove Fletcher, who was by then paralyzed on his left side, from the plane.
As the attendant pushed Fletcher to the baggage claim, his frantic daughter Diane Anacabe, a registered nurse who is speaking out for the first time, saw her dad slumped over and realized what was happening.
“Call 911!” she shouted. But, according to Anacabe, the attendant replied, “Ma’am, I’m not allowed to do that.”
It would be another hour before Fletcher was seen by a doctor, and less than two weeks later, he would be dead. With timely intervention, Fletcher would still be alive today, his treating physician said, according to Anacabe.
“I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing,” Anacabe told The Independent. “I just couldn’t even believe it. Are they heartless? I don’t understand it… I can’t make sense of anything that took place that day.”
JetBlue did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement upon the lawsuit’s initial filing, a spokesperson said, “We take the health and safety of our customers and crewmembers very seriously.”
On April 22, 2025, Fletcher, a New Hampshire resident, got himself to Boston Logan International Airport for the 3-hour, 20-minute flight to Florida. He would be turning 90 years old in six days, and his family had rented a large Airbnb to accommodate the 26 relatives on hand, including four of his seven great-grandchildren, to celebrate.
Fletcher lived completely on his own, and was in good overall health, according to Anacabe’s lawsuit, which was filed January 5 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
She said he had lunch at Logan before boarding the plane, and, as the lawsuit maintains, Fletcher “walked onto the aircraft without difficulty and did not require, request, or receive any form of additional assistance.”
Three weeks earlier, Anacabe told The Independent, Fletcher flew by himself to Nashville, where one of his granddaughters was getting married. He was at the rehearsal dinner, helped shuttle groomsmen to the ceremony and hit the dance floor at the reception, Anacabe said. For his 80th birthday, Fletcher, who went hunting twice a year and loved to fish, hiked a glacier in Alaska, according to Anacabe.
“He was jumping into the pool doing cannonballs at 89,” Anacabe recalled. “I was yelling at him that he was going to break a hip, but he thought it was fun. He would be on the floor with my grandchildren, playing. The guy didn’t stop.”
The flight to West Palm went by without incident, Anacabe’s lawsuit states. Until, that is, the plane taxied to the gate, where Fletcher suddenly found himself immobilized by a stroke.
Fletcher’s speech, which had been perfectly fine up to that point, was now garbled, and he was in “visible distress,” the lawsuit says. Slumped over across the second row of seats, Fletcher tried to get the attention of the crew and other passengers exiting the aircraft, to no avail, according to the suit. Eventually, one fellow traveler asked Fletcher if he was OK, and he “responded in the negative,” the suit continues.
The other passenger then told a crewmember that Fletcher needed help, the suit goes on. Yet, the JetBlue staffer “made no effort whatsoever to obtain medical attention” for him.
“Instead of contacting emergency medical personnel or Mr. Fletcher’s family members, JetBlue placed a request for a non-emergency wheelchair attendant to come to the gate,” the lawsuit alleges. It took three people to lift Fletcher into the wheelchair, according to Anacabe.
By now, Anacabe, who was waiting at the baggage claim with her husband, had begun to worry, she said.
“My dad didn’t come down, didn’t come down, didn’t come down,” Anacabe told The Independent. “I thought, ‘OK, he went to the bathroom.’”
Anacabe was tracking her father’s phone, and saw that he was in the terminal, she explained. At last, Anacabe spotted Fletcher, whose left arm was nearly dragging on the floor, being wheeled into the baggage claim area, she said. Anacabe ran over to him and immediately knew her father was deep in the throes of a stroke, according to the lawsuit.
But, it maintains, the airport attendant “adamantly refused” to call 911, citing company policy, and walked away.
Instead, Anacabe dialed for help and then waited for emergency services to arrive.
A full hour after flight 321 had landed, first responders had Fletcher en route to St. Mary’s Medical Center, where Anacabe works, and which has a comprehensive stroke center.
