United to Add Heart Devices to Planes

Less than two weeks after being sued in a passenger’s death, United Airlines joined other carriers in plans to equip planes with defibrillators, which deliver electric shocks that can sometimes revive victims of cardiac arrest.

United said its decision had nothing to do with a lawsuit alleging the airline’s on-board medical equipment was not adequate to treat a passenger’s cardiac arrest on a 1995 flight from Boston to San Francisco.

United joins American, Delta and several international carriers in planning to include the devices on many of their flights by year’s end.