Passenger Taken to Hospital After Overhead Bag Falls During Take-Off
Jackie Reddy December 16, 2015
An unnamed passenger on a recent BA flight to Bangkok sustained a serious head injury after being struck by a bag.
A British Airways (BA) passenger was seriously injured earlier this week after sustaining a head injury from a bag that fell from an overhead locker during take-off.
The incident occurred on the afternoon of Monday, 14 December as the flight was preparing to depart London Heathrow Airport (LHR) for Thailand. While the plane’s crew did not see the accident, passengers seated near the man expressed their shock as the bag fell from the bin to strike the man on the head.
An unnamed source told the Sun, “The passenger was getting ready for the flight when suddenly the overhead locker burst open and a heavy-duty bag landed on his head. There was a terrible sound on impact and he collapsed. It was a freak accident.”
An ambulance was called and the man, who was believed to have been traveling alone, was taken to a local hospital. The carrier confirmed that the unnamed man had to be kept in the hospital as a result of the accident, but denied that the luggage fell out of the locker while the plane was moving.
A spokesperson for BA said, “Our crew cared for a customer who was injured after boarding the aircraft. We take the health and safety of our customers very seriously and our cabin crew receive extensive training to deal with incidents on board. He was taken to a local hospital and we wish him a speedy recovery.”
The London Ambulance Service was also able to confirm that it had treated a man for a head injury at LHR.
The passenger has since recovered and is believed to have taken a different flight to Thailand.
[Photo: Alamy]
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The same thing happened a couple of years ago on our ANA flight from HND - LAX. During boarding, a very heavy carry-on fell onto the head of an unsuspecting passenger seated behind us. She was removed on a stretcher and the take-off delayed an hour while they removed her luggage from the cargo compartment. A tragic accident that was certainly avoidable.
To the last two posters - BA has the most generous weight limits for hand luggage of any airline I know. They allow about triple of what you can bring on a QF flight. And not once did they ask me to take off my backpack when boarding one of their many planes. While it is true that at LHR many airlines - including UA and AA - are rather strict with hand luggage limits, BA isn't among them. I wonder how they managed a fast return to the point of origin if the accident happened during take off? I would have taken a considerable amount of time to dump the excess fuel on such a route, if the plane then can dump fuel.
@Richardjbaker, at least she did not fall out of the seat onto someone's head. Not @ rjb :) Why is the grossly oversized overweight "carry-on" the airline's responsibility? What about being a responsible passengers and comply with the requirements instead of being an over self entitled flyer? Airline employees have to deal with nasty passengers everyday. Why would they want a confrontation with a passenger if they can avoid it?
My experience with LHR is that they are über strict at security with regard to weight and size of carry-ons so my initial reaction is that either the FAs didn't verify that every overhead compartment was confirmed closed or that the bin had a structural flaw that led to this accident.
Until airlines start to enforce size and weight of Carry-on Bags this is going to continue to happen. Lots of Bags Now are too Large and Many way overweight for what overhead bins were originally designed. Thankfully BA are one of the few airlines to make passengers carry their backpacks instead of allowing them to swing carelessly down the Cabin like overloaded camels whilst also carrying a Mobile Phone and Beverage.