A New York man claims he was left with excruciating burns after a Delta Air Lines flight attendant allegedly dumped scalding hot coffee on his lap on his way home from a Puerto Rico vacation.
Frank Morello, 63, was onboard the JFK-bound flight in October 2025 when the “overheated” and “dangerous” brew scorched his right leg, he claimed in a Monday lawsuit in Queens Supreme Court against the airline.
Morello’s skin immediately began to blister and was permanently scarred from the painful ordeal, his lawyer Michael G. LoRusso told The Post.
“It must have been pretty hot,” LoRusso said. “And when you’re serving it, you have to be super careful.”
The Suffolk County, Long Island man didn’t receive any kind of treatment for his injuries until after the plane landed at JFK, LoRusso claimed.
Morello is seeking an unspecified amount of damages. Delta did not immediately return a request for comment.
Coffee-linked injuries have sparked numerous legal battles over the years.
In July 2025, a Queens couple sued Scandinavian Airlines for a whopping $10 million after “excessively” hot java spilled onto the woman’s lap.
Aymara and Giuseppe Corbo were flying from Copenhagen to Oslo when a flight staffer accidentally spilled the coffee on her lap, leaving her with “severe burns, pain, suffering” and “scarring and cosmetic deformity,” the couple said in the litigation.
Morello’s alleged permanent injuries come more than 30 years after an elderly New Mexico woman famously sued McDonald’s after a piping-hot coffee spilled onto her lap and gave her third-degree burns.
The case, Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants, initially won her a whopping $2.7 million. The award was later reduced in a confidential settlement.
Stella Liebeck claimed the 180- to 190-degree beverage left her with injuries so severe she was hospitalized for a week and needed skin grafts.
“It was an accident, yes, I understand that. But he got hurt,” LoRusso said.
