schwarm

My wife, 10-month-old son, and I were traveling yesterday. My wife was holding my son in the aisle seat when I went off to prepare some baby food. This was just at the end of the boarding process (premium cabin; other details not important).

The last person to board in the cabin came aboard with 2 large carry-on bags. He put the smaller of these over his seat and then attempted to put the larger over my wife (and baby). Apparently, the bag was so heavy that he was struggling. This was a relatively fit appearing young to middle-aged man. He lost control of the bag and it fell on my wife's head just barely missing my baby.

My wife developed a goose egg on her head and still has some pain. The near-miss to my baby was frankly horrifying. This was a very heavy bag falling from the height of the middle bins on a large plane. My wife was shaking from adrenaline rush for several hours.

We had the FA fill out an accident report, but, unless my wife deteriorates neurologically (very unlikely - and I'm frankly an expert able to judge these things), the actual damages are not great enough to warrant legal action.

My point in posting is to warn everyone about the dangers of falling luggage. This applies both to sitting (and being a possible victim) and to loading (and being a possible perpetrator). I'm also concerned that with the new costs associated with checking bags these risks will be increased.

IMO, this was the greatest threat to my son's life in his 10-month existence. I'll not be surprised when an infant is killed.

magiciansampras

Agreed. When I, or my wife, am in the aisle seat I always pay very close attention to what is going on above us with the overheads. I've seen way too many incidents similar to the one you just experienced.

With baggage checking fees I would imagine this problem is going to get worse. More and more heavier bags are going to be going into those overheads as folks try to save some money.

adambadam

Oooh. Scary situation. Glad your child was okay and hope your wife makes a speedy recovery. I hope the man who was trying to store the bag was forgiving and polite. I like sitting in aisle seat and whenever I see someone struggling, especially when they are over my head I quickly get up to assist.

abmj-jr

Glad your child is ok - and hopefully your wife, as well. I've actually had this happen to me a couple of times. I am pretty paranoid about it and have managed to catch a heavy carry-on bag on one occasion and a case of wine on another when pax attempting to stow them over my head completely lost control. Since those occasions, I have made it a point to be very, very alert during boarding.

prncess674

I have had a bag bounced on my head before too. If I see someone getting ready to heave a bag over my head, I ask them to please wait while I stand.

nd_eric_77

Glad your wife and kid are alright. Its a rather bizzarre cooincidence, but my daughter actually did have a bag dropped on her head when she was 10 months old. I was not with them, but mrs. nd_eric_77 and our daughter were on a KE flight from ICN to CGK to visit mrs. nd_eric_77's family. As they prepared to deplane, a Korean gentleman opened the overhead bin, and his laptop bag dropped right onto our daughter's head. Fortunately, the largest extent of damage was that it startled crap out of our daughter (and scared the hell out of my wife). No lasting damage. Nonetheless, I have always been extra careful after hearing about that incident.

GUWonder

I've had items fall on me from the overhead bins -- usually nothing too heavy but twice they were heavy items and one of those times the bag owner(s) responsible for it falling on me didn't even apologize or ask if I was ok. Definitely a risk of sitting in the aisle -- a growing risk given recent free baggage allowance adjustments have been announced that will encourage even more and heavier carry-on items.

Sounds a lot like what happened to me too, except my head and shoulder did the catching.

Kiwi Flyer

Ditto, and yeah been hit before (not serious thankfully).

GadgetFreak

Ive been dinged too, but not badly. Im glad that your child wasnt hurt and your wife sounds like she will recover fully. As people have said, this is going to get a lot worse, quickly due to the new checked bag charges.

MCOFlyer

Frightening but sadly not at all surprising. People seem to develop a self focus when cramming their brick-filled steamer trunks into the overhead (or anything else for that matter...I nearly got creamed with a bag of golf clubs once). How did the person react? Was he apologetic at the very least?

CDTraveler

There's no way I will stay seated while someone lifts a bag over my head, even if it is the FA. I've seen too many bags fall, and some nasty cuts and bruises from the bags landing on pax. You want to stow your bag? Wait until I am standing in the aisle behind you and out of range.

abmj-jr

I was fortunate to see it coming both times and get my hands up in time. The case of wine was a little scary with the hard, sharp corners. The rather elderly gentleman was quite happy to have me volunteer to stow it for him after that, since he really couldn't lift it above his shoulders without help.

sfogate

Sorry to hear that you experienced a common occurance. Lucky your wife didn't suffer a broken nose or a shoulder injury, because that is the usual complaint from this type of accident.

skylady

The only good news is, that the carry-on sizes and weights have not changed. They will now be much more stringently adhered to.

JoeBagodonuts

sorry to hear that and you are a better man than i am for not going off on the guy. i would have given him an earful about the carelessness and that is what it was around the baby

glad all is well

years ago in the 90s a guy was putting a camera bag about the size of a football up over me in the aisle and didnt do it properly and it came down and hit me on the outside shoulder which hurt like a sob and i just got up and told him in a harsh tone that if he cant handle it dont put it up there as all he cared about was whether his camera was ok

if i had thought about it, id have given his camera a nice swift kick

i ALWAYS watch those when they go overhead now, my paranoia is when im asleep and dont see them go overhead

my kids always sit by the window just because of this