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According to her attorney, Arianna Morgan still suffers from headaches, numbness and fatigue three weeks after being exposed to deicer fumes on an Alaska Airlines flight at Sea-Tac Airport on Christmas Eve, 2008.

SEATTLE – A passenger who was overcome by deicer fumes on an Alaska Airlines flight at Sea-Tac Airport Christmas Eve is suing the airline in federal court.

The fumes filled the cabin of Flight 528 bound for Burbank, Calif. The 143 passengers and six crew members started smelling strong fumes as the deicer was being applied to the plane.

Eighteen passengers were treated at the airport. The flight crew and one off-duty flight attendant were taken to the hospital as a precaution.

According to a statement by her attorney, Arianna Morgan argues that she and her fellow passengers breathed in toxic fumes for more than 30 minutes before the jet made it back to the gate.

Aviation attorney Alisa Brodkowitz says that the passengers were given an option to stay in Seattle to receive medical attention or get on another plane home. They were told the fumes were safe and that it would be out of their systems in a couple of hours.

However, Brodkowitz says Morgan is still feeling the effects three weeks later. Morgan says she suffers from numbness and tingling in her hands, "like hundreds of spiders crawling on them.” She claims to still have the headache that began in Seattle, her body has been crippled by fatigue and she experiences "extreme shakiness.”

Brodkowitz is concerned the deicer used by Alaska Airlines that day was particularly toxic. She argues that passengers should have been told what chemicals they were exposed to and the possible consequences. She also says Alaska Airlines had a duty to ensure the ventilation, air ducts and air conditioning systems in the place were closed during deicing.

Brodkowitz also says the passengers should have been evacuated immediately and not left to inhale the fumes for a half-hour.

Morgan spoke to reporters shortly after landing in Burbank that day.

“They said that if they thought that I was getting sick, they wouldn’t let me on the plane. So, I went to the bathroom and I got sick in the bathroom so they wouldn’t see that,” said Morgan. “I didn’t want to go to the hospital because I knew I wouldn’t get home for Christmas.”

"The airline gave passengers the choice of seeking medical treatment and remaining in Seattle indefinitely, or allowing them to board a new flight that would send them home to their families on Christmas Eve," said Brodkowitz in a statement. "That sort of 'Hobson's Choice' may have impacted the health of the passengers on that flight for a lifetime."

“The welfare of all our passengers is of the highest importance to us. We just received the complaint and are reviewing it,” said Caroline Boren, Alaska Airlines spokeswoman.

Many airlines were not able to get flights out of Sea-Tac for several days prior to the incident because of the weather. One big reason for the delays, ironically, was a shortage of plane deicer.