On-board Injury Advice
 

I have been offered 30,000 Avios for an injury caused by an item falling from the "Cabin Crew Only" locker during takeoff - the cabin crew had failed to shut the locker. The resulting injury was a sore head at the time and 2 black-eyes the following day, and I obviously got quite a fright when it happened. The crew were aware of the incident at the time (I was sitting in the last row so they were seated just behind me), I have photographic evidence and a letter from my doctor. However no accident report was done at the time - I didn't even think about that.

Is the offer deemed to be suitable compensation or should I reject and take further?

Any advice appreciated.

Edited to add : UK domestic flight Heathrow to Glasgow

Don't feel rushed to make an immediate decision. There's always a chance that medical problems can become apparent later.

You don't state your nationality/residence or the route, so it's unclear whether your injuries were covered by national health insurance or you had/have medical bills.

Did you miss work as a result of your injuries?

IMO crew should have taken the initiative to make an accident report even if you didn't demand one at the time as this involved serious crew negligence (IANAL).

In many locations, standard advice would be to consult a qualified lawyer, but once again IANAL.

Welcome to Flyertalk LouLou77, welcome in particular to the BA forum. However you bring an alarming first post here, and though your report is quite factual, I imagine this was a very distressing event, which should never have happened. Welcome here, and thank you for sharing this event. I imagine some FTers would like to know some more details, and it would be great to hear from you on this matter and indeed elsewhere.

I doubt it is much of a consolation, but I think it's the first time I've heard of an incident like this since participating here. I don't think it's an everyday event, thankfully. Thinking about it, overheads springing open during take off certainly does happen, so in a way I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

You ask the specific point about compensation, I think that can be seen several ways. One point is that 10K is usually the maxima that Customer Relations give out, 30k is currently a high figure. On the other hand misfunctioning IFE - in the past - got similar figures. To some extent I get a bit conflicted by this (very frequent) question: it's not so much about what other people get or what the history was, it is all about you: do you think it is a fair recompense or not? Can you do something good or useful with those Avios? If not, then it's no good. If it gets you a nice upgrade somewhere may be it's fair.

I hope you have fully recovered from this bad episode.

Sounds like you should obtain specialist legal advice.

One thing is for sure, Avios won't be of any use to you should for some reason unforeseen costs arise out of this.

Having 2 black eyes the following day is not the normal sequelae of a minor head injury. Did you get any scans? Edit: I see you saw your doctor so I defer to their judgement of course.

If we value Avios at 1p, then the OP is being compensated £300 for BA's negligence. (Of course, there's a very good argument that BA actually values them at 0.6p, so considers the value of the injuries to be £180.)

If that amount was offered up in cash, would the OP feel it sufficient? Personally, if I sustained a sore head, two black eyes, and the trauma of the incident - well, let's just say I'd probably be less than impressed by that offer.

The physical injuries will thankfully, of course, heal over time, so inevitably there'll be some sort of quantifiable industry formula for that. The longer term mental effect is somewhat more difficult to determine.

Much though I hesitate to espouse the services of the 'no win, no fee' vultures, in this case I would think it a sensible route forward to at least consult them - if nothing else, they have enough experience to suggest a suitable figure. My betting is that this will elicit a rather more generous settlement from BA ...

It might elicit one as well. ;)

Reject and remind them about your totally unacceptable consequential suffering.

Oops ... hopefully so, given my alternative option is somewhat less than legal ... :).

Reject that "offer".

It is an insult.

Then insist that BA send you by return of post the BA Accident report.
Then, report it to the CAA Safety section.

Get a decent solicitor on the job following rigorous medical inspections. A bash on the head does not give you two black eyes.

I really don't think anyone should settle for frequent flyer miles as a settlement for personal injury. Please seek legal and medical advice including imaging of your neck. Neck injuries can take time to be apparent and can be very painful and disabling in the long term.

No way with the Avios. It must be cash compensation + any expenses or losses incurred from the event.

This was clearly not your fault. Even BA wouldn't be paying you out of their pocket per se, their liability insurance will cover their loss.
But yes, that's where my knowledge ends. Get an accident specialist lawyer, a head injury is not to be messed with, and black eyes sound like it wasn't just a simple knock on the head!

Not having a report is not an excuse to only give Avios, you could claim that you were too shocked from the accident to even think about getting a report on board, and even claim the crew didn't want to write one because they were scared they would get in trouble!

BA may be paying it out of their pocket: I suspect their policy "excess" will be far higher than any claim here. But that is not me trying to minimise the OP's injuries.

(At one extreme, the old British Rail, for instance, used to self-insure - since it was the only one to run trains in the UK, there was no point in having an insurer as the "middle man")

What route? Where did you purchase the ticket? Where do you reside?

What does the physician have to say about your injuries? Who paid for your medical care? Did you miss work?

In order to figure out whether you could theoretically obtain more, whether in cash or avios, you need to provide all of this information.

If you experienced no loss of any kind and the injury is purely cosmetic, most jurisdictions would not result in any recovery and thus perhaps the avios are a great deal. On the other hand, if you face an uncertain medical prognosis, most would advise you not to accept or sign anything and to wait until you know the full picture.

My daughter had a small accident when some one drove in to the back of her car.
She is not a moaner and does not normally have injuries.

However, 12 months later she was still receiving Medical Consultant help and various tests for her back pains. A lot of "whiplash" claims are apparently b.s., but I saw her live through her problems.
All that came out of nowhere!