Hit On Head By Bottle

[DeeCee]

About a month ago my wife was on an Aer Lingus flight from Cork to Heathrow. During the flight one of the flight attendants opened a locker and a whisky bottle fell out and hit my wife on the head. Fortunately it was in a wooden box, but it still hurt obviously.

On landing, at the insistance of other passengers, she was taken to the medical centre where they examined her and decided she would be ok, subsequently confirmed by her own Doctor. So no lasting harm done, apart from the shock at the time.

It is ironic that passengers are warned at the end of every flight 'to be careful when opening the lockers in case something falls out etc.'

Why do I raise this now? Because I wrote and complained to Aer Lingus because the Flight Attendants treated the entire matter in what one witness described as a 'cavalier' fashion and tried to laugh it off. I realise that it would be more convenient not to have to report it, but does nobody accept any resonsibility any more?

I have had no reply from Aer Lingus.

[G-BPED]

You thread title should be " Hit on head by wooden box"

Most importantly it does not belong in "Flight Deck Forums"

Beware Rainboe will be after you !!

[DeeCee]

I thought 'bottle' had more impact..........

[TightSlot]

I thought that I posted it in Rumours & News

You did - now it's in here - welcome!!!

[PAXboy]

Write to the carrier once more. Send the letter recorded delivery and give them two weeks (if you are feeling generaous) to respond. Advise that, in the abscence of any reply, you will instruct your solicitor.
I expect that will get their attention.

Don't worry too much, at the moment, about WHAT you would instruct your solicitor to do - there will be more debate in here shortly to help you decide!

[ladyflyby]

It is very unfortunate that the crew took a 'cavalier' approach to the situation, I would have been mortified if I had been the crew member to open the locker. In the end gravity is not on our side; if you are trying to find someone to blame, why not send your letter to Newton.

[PAXboy]

As I understood DeeCee's problem, ladyflyby, it was not about the gravity of the bottle in it's box but about the lack of gravity with which the CC responded to the accident.

Yes, this kind of accident will happen but if the professional person involved has tried to "laugh off the problem", then their employer should be advised. The failure of the carrier to respond to the first letter, compounds the problem.

[DeeCee]

The FA actually said 'who put this in here?' whilst holding up the bottle, thereby transferring blame on to the owner. No one said anything at the time, although the man sitting behind my wife picked it up as everyone disembarked.

Actually I'm not trying to blame either the FA or the guy who owned the bottle. Accidents happen. It would just be nice if someone said sorry.

[Avman]

It would just be nice if someone said sorry

I agree with you, but I fear that in today's litigation happy society saying "sorry" is tantamount to admitting liability, which may leave one open to all sorts of repercussions.

[Final 3 Greens]

In the past couple of years, I have had three 'gravity' encounters caused by CC..

- one pair of crew shoes dropped on my head in BA J class (whilst asleep)

- two sets of video tapes (separate incidents) dropped on my head/shoulders on Air Malta

The BA incident (it was the CSD wot did it) resulted in the offending CC member (her offence being to place the shoes in the storage) being sent to apologise....hang on a minute, she didn't drop them or am I missing something?

One Air Malta resulted in a profuse apology, the other in the steward saying that he hope the tapes were not damaged :rolleyes:

As a result I have changed may fave seat from 1C to 1A, on the basis that next time the object may be more dangerous - woulldn't fancy copping a bottle though

[amanoffewwords]

That's nothing - I had a whole drinks trolley fall on me during a flight out of FRA a few years ago. The CC thought she'd killed me + didn't stop apologising all the way to LHR. Got a written apology from BA, new clothes (where the orange juice had permanently stained), the rest dry cleaned and a bottle of perfume for Mrs Words (free choice from the onboard catalogue). The funny thing is that when it happened the guy next to me burried his face in his newspaper - not sure why :confused:

[IRRenewal]

I had a whole drinks trolley fall on me

What, from an overhead locker? :}

[amanoffewwords]

What, from an overhead locker? :}

No, that's the time when a laptop (in it's case) fell out and hit me on the shoulder - but that's another story [also involving a gentleman behind a newspaper] :ugh:

[apaddyinuk]

Now in no way am I defending the cavalier attitude of the crew member involved however....It always annoys me how passengers seem to be under the impression that the space of locker immediately above their seats is theirs and theirs alone so when that space has filled up with huge trolley bags and coats, passengers immediately underneath will still insist on squeezing their Duty free booze, laptop bags, portfolio tubes, bricks and mortar precariously into the locker space where they are more than likely going to come bouncing out as soon as the locker door which is being used to wedge these items in comes flying open!!!!

Indeed care should always be taken when opening the lockers however some times its impossible to take care when someone else has been totally careless in the first place!!!!!