Virgin Australia Sued Over Coffee Burns
Jennifer Billock November 22, 2016
A teenager with burns from hot coffee is suing Virgin Australia over a defective tray table.
On a May 2015 flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, 16-year-old Rhett Butler had an incident with a cup of coffee, leading the teen and his family to sue the airline. According to the lawsuit, the cabin crew served a cup of coffee, but the tray table was defective. It had no recessed area for the cup to sit in and it angled down toward Butler’s lap. The coffee slid off the table onto Butler, allegedly causing burns, blisters, and scars on his groin, midriff, and thighs. According to the family, Butler’s father Brian had to give his son medical care, as the crew would no longer help.
“An incident did occur on flight VA2 from Los Angeles to Sydney on 3 May 2015,” the airline said in a statement reported by The Guardian. “Virgin Australia takes the safety and comfort of our passengers extremely seriously, however given this particular matter has not yet been resolved it would not be appropriate to comment any further.”
The incident occurred 40 minutes after takeoff.
“It was excruciating and probably the worst pain I have ever felt,” Butler told the Daily Mail. “I ran to the toilet and Dad immediately started putting cold water on the burns.”
The lawsuit states that the father and son had to use their own bandages because there wasn’t enough on the plane, there were only two ice packs available, and the crew refused to give them more cold water to soothe the burns after they went through 12 bottles, because they wanted to ensure there was enough for the first-class passengers.
“They said that we have got to make sure that we have enough water for the flight, especially in first class,” Brian said. “Why even mention that?”
[Photo: Virgin Australia]
