Accidents on Board an Aircraft – Who’s to Blame?

Over recent years, the number of passengers boarding aircraft has increased dramatically. This vast increase of passengers inevitably leads to an increase in the occurrence of onboard incidents involving staff or other paying passengers.

According to one estimate, approximately 4,500 passengers are injured each year from falling baggage. Another common cause of injury is rolling food carts. These carts can injure seated passengers when rolling by, or even hit passengers who are moving throughout the cabin.

Turbulence can cause several in-flight accidents and a crucial factor in these kinds of injury cases is to ascertain what the cabin crew did or failed to do. Did they warn or instruct passengers just before the turbulence occurred?

If you have been injured whilst travelling on board an aircraft – whether you were in mid-air or on the ground – you have certain rights to protect you as a paying passenger. This means that regardless of whether you are in mid-air or in another country, once you are on board a plane, the aircraft is bound by the rules of the Montreal Convention 1999.

This Convention was brought in by the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), to ensure that passengers’ rights were kept largely consistent. This allows an injured person to claim compensation if they were onboard a national or international flight.

Article 17 of the Montreal Convention states that the carrier is liable for damage sustained in the case of death or bodily injury, upon condition only that the accident which caused the death or injury took place on board the aircraft, or in the course of the aircraft embarking or disembarking.

Airlines fall into a legal category called “common carriers”. The law imposes a heightened duty of care on common carriers, and therefore, airlines and other common carriers must act with a high degree of care in order to protect passengers from potential harm.

Although an airline is not an insurer of a passenger’s safety, it is responsible for any negligence on the part of its employees and is required to do all that is reasonable under the circumstances to prevent injuries from occurring.

This duty of care is owed to you as a passenger, whilst you are boarding the plane, travelling on board the aircraft and getting off the plane. An accident may be caused by a member of the cabin crew colliding into you with their trolley or spilling hot drinks onto your lap, therefore causing injuries.

If this has happened, you must report the accident immediately as even in flight, the cabin crew will have a procedure for reporting the incidents. It is also essential that you seek medical attention after you have landed.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

If you have been injured whilst on board an aircraft and it was not your fault, contact Oakwood Solicitors today on 0113 200 9720 for a free initial consultation, or contact us online here to discuss how we can help you.