cattle

First off JS I am very sorry to hear about this and glad that everyone is ok (relatively speaking).

^^^ This is exactly what I do. Crack it, wait and then open very slowly. I too have caught a the odd item that has shifted and it is worth it every time.

PTravel

I've read quite a few of these responses and, frankly, I'm surprised by a lot of them.

First things first: I'm sorry your son was injured, and I hope he's fine and not put off of flying.

With that said, nothing I've read indicates that the woman who dropped the bag committed a criminal act. Call the police? Call her a "perp"? Please! It would have been courteous for her to stay, and I'd think she'd care whether she accidently hurt someone, but I'm not aware of ANY law, civil or criminal, that required her to remain (and I am a lawyer -- and, no, this isn't legal advice, no one here is my client, for legal advice retain a lawyer, etc.).

It's also not clear from the description of the incident how it came about that the second bag fell out out of the bin when she removed her own. In a civil law context, the woman might have incurred liability for negligence IF her actions in removing her bag fell below the standard of care that would have been exercised by a reasonably prudent person. I don't know whether they did or did not -- it's certainly not clear from the description.

And, at the risk of incurring some flames, let me also suggest this: an airplane cabin, particularly during boarding and deplaning, is a crowded, chaotic place. We adults recognize that there are heavy things in the overhead bins, and our general awareness and peripheral vision is usually enough to protect us from these kinds of accidents. Children don't share this awareness, and don't recognize an airplane cabin as the potentially dangerous place that it is. I don't think it is appropriate to expect other passengers to watch out for children that are not in their own custody -- that's the job of their parents/guardians. I'm not suggesting in any way that the OP was responsible for the little boy's injuries -- obviously, she was not. However, I don't think all the blame should be placed on the woman who removed her bag from the overhead.

JS

I agree that she did not commit a criminal act. Accidents are not crimes. However, I do believe she was negligent. Whether she would lose in a civil court is useful only for debate here because I don't know who she is, and I wouldn't bother going to the expense of suing her even if I did know.

I should add that I didn't actually see the bag fall. I didn't see anything until I saw blood.

It was other passengers and two flight attendants who made these observations, and I have no reason to believe that they want to make some stranger a scapegoat.

My lesson learned is to never put my child in an aisle seat, or if I have no choice (e.g., a 767), make him sit on my lap when the plane reaches the gate.

cynic

First of all, I'm glad that your son is okay. Head wounds tend to be bleeders so I know that even a minor wound can look really scary.

I second the suggestion to use two hands and to open the hatch carefully. However, the hatch was already open with the woman attempting to remove her bag, so that suggestion wouldn't have really helped in the OP's situation.

I'm going to join in the minority and say that really the only thing that the woman did wrong was to display a disgusting lack of courtesy after the accident happened. Without more information, it would be difficult to say whether the woman was negligent in her actions or not. Do we even have a good description of what happened from the other passengers? If they just said that the woman caused the other bag to fall, that's still not altogether helpful. They probably also judged her actions more harshly due to her apparent lack of decency after the accident than for the accident itself. And I just have to say, if they did say that they saw enough of it to determine her negligence and they were closeby, why didn't anyone of them try to prevent it from happening? Whenever I'm standing in the aisle and I see someone struggling with the overhead and pulling out too much, I reach over to help. Anyway, since it was a laptop that fell (which I'm assuming is small and flat though heavy) I can easily see how someone might not see it shifting if it was on the other side of her bag or even possibly partway below her bag. If that is what happened, then I would say that this was only an accident like getting hit with a ball or getting run into on the ski slopes (but not like a car accident since most car accidents involve at least one of the drivers breaking a traffic law). It's an accident. Accidents can and do happen without anyone necessarily being negligent. Our litigious society often wants to assign blame as negligence when bad things happen, but often it is just an accident. Sorry, I just don't really see the lawsuit here.

Anyway, I would think that Delta would pay for your bills out of courtesy, but I don't really think that they are really liable either. Clear doors (to see what's shifted during flight) and cargo nets (to prevent stuff from falling out when the door is first opened) and outlawing oversize luggage is all well and good, but none of that would have prevented a small, but heavy laptop case from falling on someone when someone else was getting their stuff down. The only thing the airlines could do is outlaw the overhead bin pretty much completely or to have the flight attendants remove everthing from the overheads, neither of which is all that appealing of an option. Although, I guess they could divide the bins into small compartments and assign a compartment to each seat so that the bags don't touch. You wouldn't be able to fit as much stuff in there and anyone with an oddshaped carryon would be SOL, but that probably would work. Barring that, I think the best things to do are to get out of the line of fire or at least be alert when the bin is open, help out if you see someone is having trouble, and not allow children to sit in the aisle seat. Which reminds me why wouldn't it be possible to not have your child in the aisle seat on a 767?

travelinmanS

I am sorry for the situation but I think it points out a bigger issue, especially in the USA.

I don't understand why people bring their huge bags on the plane and then try and cram them into the overhead bins when the airline will, for FREE no less, take your bag from you at the very beginning of the trip and deliver it to you at the very end of the trip. Of course, there are the odd hicups but these are rare and I'd imagine a person could fit any absolute necessities in a bag that would "legally" fit into the overhead bins.

This is what happens in every other country I've traveled. There are never calls to "bring the bags that wont fit up front to be checked". Since most of my travels are international it was quite a shock to take 2 trips last month exclusively within the US and see just how many bin hogs there are. People bring huge suitcases on the plane and expect to have room for them in the overhead bins, all to save the precious 10 minutes it takes to retrieve a checked bag at the end of a flight...it's nuts!

Check your bags people!!!

C17PSGR

As an attorney, I actually handled such a claim a few years ago where an injured passenger was making a claim that a business traveler from my employer dropped luggage from the overhead bin. I looked at the various legal issues (don't remember what state since this is a state law issue) and thought it was a pretty open and shut case against the employee, and that we were liable because the employee was engaged in business travel. We paid the claim, although it wasn't much.

Here, I think the case against the woman is pretty clear - we all have a duty to check that we aren't causing an avalanche of luggage when pulling things out of the overhead bin. I don't think the answer is not to carry things on. In my experience, business travellers use carry on's that are properly sized and can be easily stowed in the overhead bins. OTOH, some travelers travel with oversized luggage that is too heavy for them to lift into the bin.

Glad to hear your son is OK. Thanks for sharing this - I'll be more careful next time.

JS

I agree. I'm not going to sue anyone; the negligence discussion is only hypothetical.

On the 767, it is not possible for me to sit next to my child, because the seats go window, aisle, aisle, center, aisle, aisle, window. We would have to sit in window seats in separate rows.

Flying with two kids, I don't mind sitting next to one child and one row away from the other child. In fact, in addition to aisle seat avoidance, it's better because the two kids won't fight with each other.

JS

I have not received a letter from Delta. I gave them my name and address two weeks ago on the flight in question.

If they wrote me and said, "Sorry that our huge overhead bins contributed to an injury, here's a $100 eVoucher", I would use it and be done with it.

Since they haven't written me and today I got a bill from the ambulance for $580 I think I will write Delta and ask for a voucher equal to marginal costs (once I receive the ER bill). Marginal costs include the ambulance, ER, and a rental car (I was going to stay in a hotel anyway so I'll leave that off).

skye

Untrue. Accompanying my husband on business trips numerous times per month, we have never encountered any such behavior/accidents in Cathay Pacific's First Class. I saw someone being hit by baggage in Business Class, but never First Class.

Nuitari

Coming back from Frankfurt to Montreal, in early june I've been hit by something I can describe only as wrapped skis or wooden planks, but at least 5 feet long.

... it was doing in the overhead bins, I have no idea.

PresRDC

If the airlines would not loose bags and if the bags would consistently be delivered in a timely fashion, I would be far more inclined to check mine. The risk of a misplaced bag or a long wait at baggage claim makes the prospect of checking a bag not very appealing to me.

TrojanHorse

If I could trust the airlines not to lose my bags, not to make me wait in a 2nd line to put my checked luggage thru the screening bin, not to break things and not to make me wait up to 45 minutes to pick up my luggage then I might check more things. However they don't do this so I will carry on if possible.

On topic regarding the falling item, I prefer aisles as well. I always watch above me when someone opens the overhead for two reasons: 1. that no one is taking my belongings and 2. so that I don't get beaned like the poor kid.

I learned the watch for falling objects after a flight I took where a lady (and I use the term loosely) that was two rows behind me but had had stored her camcorder above my aisle seat tried to reach across two rows upon landing to retrieve her camcorder. Well she grabbed the shoulder strap and pulled on it and of course it came swinging down and nailed me right in the shoulder then fell in my lap and then to the floor in front of me when she let go. Don't ask me why she let go, I don't know. It was in a padded case and it hit me in the shoulder so it didnt do any damage but it hurt like you read about. I will tell ya this though besides learning to watch for falling objects, I gave the camera a nice swift kick into the space under the seat in front of me and the person an earful. To this day I don't know why she couldn't wait till she passed the o/h bin to retrieve her item. Had she waited, this would have never happened and her camera might have made it to her destination without the results of a nice swift kick.

Based on this experience I've learned not to let any child (at least small child) I ever travel with sit in an aisle seat.

As for liability to your son's injuries, I would think someone is at fault but even after reading all of this, I can't figure out who.

JS

Question for the audience:

Am I a greedy BAL if I write Delta and say that I want a $500 voucher to effectively reimburse me for the $500 cost of this incident?

SpottyDog

You are correct in both statements. However, in situations such as these, people make a conscious, human choice. Situation: You open the overhead bin and, in doing so, a heavy bag drops and splits a child's head open. Choice A: You acknowledge that the incident happened and offer an apology. Choice B: You pretend it never happened and walk away without saying anything.

While there is no legal obligation to go with Choice A, it's certainly the right thing to do and many situations can be avoided just by doing the right thing. The woman in question was lucky that JS was not the type of person who would have followed her off the plane and beat the s**t out of her for basically saying "I've hurt your child. Oh well. Get over it. Bye!" For WHATEVER reason, as an adult, you do not cause injury to a child and just walk away like nothing happened.

SpottyDog

You'd be a greedy BAL if you wrote them and said you wanted $1,500 and two round trip tickets somewhere.

In this case, you're not asking for anything unreasonable considering the circumstances. Has Delta even acknowledged on paper that the incident occurred?