Traveling across the country or the world 30,000 feet above the ground in an airliner requires giving a lot of trust to airlines to be responsible and prevent injury to their customers at all costs. Unfortunately, despite how much money these companies make every year, that’s not always the case. If you were the victim of a personal injury that occurred on an airplane, you should be aware of your legal rights.
What Kinds of Injuries Can Happen in the Air?
There are many different kinds of injuries that can occur while on a flight. These can include things like:
• Back injuries
• Bone fractures
• Crush injuries
• Joint dislocations
• Neck injuries
• Severe burns
• Spinal cord injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
Many of these injuries can occur due to things like extreme turbulence. Sometimes, this turbulence may not be announced by the flight crew. This can cause a passenger to be thrown against the ceiling, luggage racks, or seats. In other cases, turbulence can cause severe whiplash, injuring a passenger’s neck or spinal cord. Even something like the drink cart can cause severe injuries if coffee spills during unexpected turbulence and makes contact with a nearby passenger.
Even long after a traumatizing flight, the mental scars of that incident can continue to haunt a person for months or even years afterwards. Post-traumatic stress disorder can interfere with a person’s ability to make an income and function independently in society like they could in the past. Many flight injuries, both physical and mental, can require years of expensive medical treatment.
This can end up being a lifelong struggle for the survivors of a serious incident on an airplane. The toll can be physical, mental, and financial. It can also seriously hamper a person’s overall quality of life. While it may be hard to quantify that kind of loss, victims can certainly seek damages in a court of law for things like mental anguish and quality of life issues.
What Are Your Rights on an Airplane?
Thankfully, passengers have certain rights when they are injured on a flight that can be recognized in a court of law through a personal injury lawsuit. First, you should understand that airlines do not operate under the general legal principles of other businesses. Instead, they are classified by the law as something known as “common carriers.” This common carrier status actually comes with a higher standard for the duty of care than what a more ordinary brick-and-mortar business would be held to. This means airlines and their flight crews are expected to do everything within their power to ensure that passengers remain safe and secure while on a flight. They should, in fact, be hyper vigilant in regard to threats to their customer’s health and safety.
If this high standard is violated by an airline’s employees and they do not act within their full ability to protect passengers from harm, a court can determine that a breach in the airline’s duty of care has occurred. For example, if passengers were not warned of incoming turbulence and were not told to remain in their seats during extreme weather conditions, a breach in their duty of care would probably be proven in court.
If that breach was shown to be the apparent cause of the injury and that damages resulted from that injury, the airline can certainly be held financially responsible. Damages may be awarded by the court, and in many cases, a settlement may be reached beforehand, especially since media attention around such court cases can be damaging for an airline’s brand.
What to Do After an Injury on an Airplane
Panic can certainly set in when you become injured 30,000 above the ground. However, you should try to keep a clear head after being injured. What you do next can help determine your future. First of all, you should immediately request medical attention. Alert the flight crew of your injury so they can administer first aid. The flight crew can also find a medical professional onboard that can help treat your injury until your flight lands.
The second thing you should absolutely remember to do is to report your injury immediately. Report it to a flight attendant. It is the flight attendant’s job to handle these kinds of emergencies. Upon landing, the injury should also be reported to the gate agent. Overall, you need to preserve evidence that the airline was made aware that you were injured on your flight. This should include the creation of an in-flight incident report that details everything that occurred regarding your injury. Make sure to ask for a copy, and make sure your personal injury lawyer gets a copy as well.
Third, you should preserve more evidence that could be used to back up your claims in court. Take photos with your phone of the injury as well as anything else related, such as things like the source of the injury on the plane or anything else that contributed to the injury occurring, such as a seat latch that failed. Gather the names and testimony of other passengers that witnessed what occurred. All of this could be invaluable in regard to proving your case in court or during negotiations for a settlement.
Retain all this evidence in your records and ensure you do not lose it. Make plenty of copies and backup things like image files so they are not accidentally lost or deleted. Also ensure that you keep other records of your flight, such as boarding passes and receipts, and preserve all medical records related to your treatment stemming from the injury.
Lastly, make sure you hire an attorney with experience dealing with both personal injury cases and aviation law. The law can be complex regarding things like jurisdiction, and the corporate attorneys airlines hire can be extremely aggressive in regard to trying to minimize any payout given to passengers. If you want to seek damages for your injury, you need qualified legal counsel like those at GDH Law who know the ins and outs of these kinds of personal injury cases.
