SYDNEY. Dec I 1: At least five major airlines are facing legal action by passengers who suffered "economy-class syndrome". blood clots caused bv prolonged sitting in cramped conditions, their lawyer said Monday, reports AFP.

In what is believed to be the first action of its kind in the world. Australian law firm Slater and Gordon, renowned for its successes in class actions against big business, is acting on behalf of 10 people aged from their early 20s lo late 60s.

One is the widower of a young woman who died from the syndrome, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), after a Qantas (light from Australia to Britain in September.

Another is a young Melbourne woman. Rebecca Brown, who is to sue British Airways over the severe leg cramps she suffered on a flight to London three ye^rs ago.

Brown. 24. complained that her leg cramps turned out to be

blood clots that spread io her lungs as soon as she lell the flight and she had to spend most of what should have been a European holiday in a London hospital.

"The x-rays at hospitals showed seven clots in my lungs which could have easily gone to my brain and killed me." Brown told The Australian newspaper.

"1 am totally amazed more people don't know how dangerous long distances can be."

Another passenger. Alan McCarthy. 49. is suing Emirates Airlines because he had never heard of the condition before he collapsed when a blood clot blocked his left lung two weeks after he returned to Australia from a trip to Ireland.

Air France and Air Nev.-Zealand are also among the growing list of airlines, which will 'be issued with writs early in the New Year. Slater and Gordon lawyer Paul Henderson said Monday.

In each of the 10 cases, it is

claimed the airline failed to warn |>assengers thev were exposeti to the risk of developing potenliallv fatal blood clots as a result of sitting for extended periods in cramp'd conditions.

The condition, by no means unique to airlines or even to long distance travel, is the result of sitting without adequate physical movement for excessive periods of time, doctors say.

But the case comes at a time economy class pissengers are complaining of increasingly cramped cabin space caused. lh' \ bi lieve. by airlines trying to squeeze more passengers in. Qantas, for one. denies this

' Slater and Gordon solicitor 1 Paul Henderson said ihe legal action followed the death of Welsh woman Emma Christof-fersen. 28. after she left a Hight from Melbourne in London in October.