Originally Posted by
DiveGirl23
Hi
I was on this flight and BA has refused compensation stating
"As your flight was delayed due to delayed due to medical emergency. There was a medical emergency before your flight, which meant it was delayed, it means you’re not eligible for compensation. Article 5.3 of the EU Regulation 261/2004 and The Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers’ Licencing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 states a carrier is not obliged to pay compensation if it can prove the delay or cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances, that couldn’t have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken"
In my view the delay was due to an oxygen tank falling on a passengers head. If reasonable measures had been taken when stowing and securing the tank, it would not had fallen on the passenger and the delays would not have ensued.
BA are no longer responding to me.
I would really appreciate your advice on my compensation claim as the flight was delay in excess of 5hrs.
Many thanks
Originally Posted by
flarmip
Hi and welcome to FT - I would entirely agree. They also appear to have omitted to mention the technical delay, although it's possible that this amounted to less than 3 hours of delay. Every 'non-exceptional' delay minute counts towards the 3 hour threshold though.
You can (and should) proceed to CEDR if BA come back with a 'final response' email, or once 8 weeks pass from when you originally submitted your claim - whichever comes first. There, BA will have to fully account for the delay and their miscategorisation of the nature of the delay will hopefully be seen through by the assessor. Unfortunately it's not a quick process (you will only have a decision in around 6 months if BA contests the case, as they're likely to), but it is essentially risk-free.
This is typical BA attempts to deny you compensation knowing full well it will put a lot of pax off given the extra effort BA places on you to get your compensation and thus lowering their 261 bill.
Notes attached to the operational Legs report include
PYLON PANEL DAMAGE DELAMINATED/OVERHEAD BOTTLE HIT PAX 35C MEDICAL UPGRADE BAG OFFLOAD
MUST TRAVEL AOG SPARES
POWER CARD REPLACEMENT/N1 ENG PYLOC DAMAGE
The delay codes are RA 0017 Reactionary Delay (late inbound aircraft)
DF 0202 Damage inflight - also links to the engine pylon damage and spare parts that must travel on the flight (flight will be delayed if necessary to accommodate those parts if they are delayed in getting to aircraft side)
PS 0130 Passenger causes a delay - not PRM related. Hardly surprising if you’ve just had an oxygen cylinder drop on your noggin and the medical team attending determine the situation needs upgrading and taking to hospital which causes a subsequent offload of checked in baggage.
All subsequent delays to the BA2159 UVF-GND sector and subsequent BA2158 GND-UVF and UVF-LGW were all reactionary delays as a direct consequence.
As already mentioned by flarmip, proceed to CEDR.