Injured by Flight Attendants

[Melanie69]

Jurisdiction

Florida

I am a contractor for a company. I travel for work. Recently, while on a job, I got hit hard in the knee with a drink cart during a flight. I screamed out in pain. The flight attendants looked at me and said, "What?" I said, you took out my knee!"

They both turned and walked away. Not a word.

I turned to THEM though, and said, "Can you be more careful with your cart please?"

They literally turned their backs to me and completely ignored me. I was stunned.

One of them looked at me eventually and said, "would you like a drink?" As I opened my mouth to speak, she WALKED AWAY. I kid you not.

The other went to the back of the plane and NEVER re-appeared.

When the first walked past me, I said to her, "I would like your names please." She gave me a really nasty, condescending look, said, "mm-hm, okay." And walked away.

As I deplaned, I stopped and said again to her, "I would like your name. You hurt my knee." In the nastiest tone, in front of captain and everyone, she said, "YOU can tell [airline name] '2left' and '2right'." She was nasty, in front of the captain and everyone, like I had done something to HER.

Never at any point did they ask if I were okay, offer me help or ice, or apologize. They flipped on me like I did something wrong, ignored me, literally turned their backs to me and they treated me like garbage.

I missed my connecting flight, reported the incident, and had paramedics come look at my knee. They determined there would be no permanent damage, and I have been recovering. But I had loads of upper management on this. They made certain to get me a hotel room for the night while my company worked to fly me back home.

I am not okay with any of this. Not at all, and I really would like to see the flight attendants seriously held accountable. In addition, due to the nature of my work, I had to stay home and recover for three weeks. I literally walk miles of airport as part of my job, and cannot risk having a bum knee. That's income I lost.

As it relates to jurisdiction, it happened in-air on a flight from MCO to ATL.

I welcome any advice and/or feedback.

 

[mightymoose]

Did you ever see a doctor and obtain any documentation of the injury? Paramedics don't count.
Did a doctor tell you not to walk /work for 3 weeks?

 

[Melanie69]

Did you ever see a doctor and obtain any documentation of the injury? Paramedics don't count.
Did a doctor tell you not to walk /work for 3 weeks?

I did not see an additional doctor after the paramedics came.

 

[wigditty]

Let me get this straight....
You never saw a doctor regarding this injury that you yourself diagnosed requiring a three week period of rest? Why was your knee hanging out into the isle? Are you a very large man?

I can't believe that you have a shred of evidence the supposed injury will justify a lawsuit of a airline who has millions to spend on lawyers. Sad, but true.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Tax Counsel]

I am not okay with any of this. Not at all, and I really would like to see the flight attendants seriously held accountable.

First, there is absolutely nothing you can do that will force the airline to do anything to the flight attendants that were involved. What the airline does to discipline the flight attendants is strictly a personnel matter between the airline, the flight attendants, and the flight attendants' union. All you can do is sue the airline for compensation for injury caused by any negligence of the flight attendants. The rest of my reply addresses that.

Airline aisles are narrow and those carts don't have much space to move. If your knee was sticking out at all into the aisle (which I suspect is likely the case) then you bear at least part of the blame for your knee getting hit. After all, you can see the cart coming down the aisle and ensure your knees are well inside your seating area when it passes by you. Even if the flight attendants might have been negligent (and I address that next) you might end up losing a personal injury lawsuit if the jury concludes that your own negligence was sufficient enough to outweigh the negligence of the flight attendants. How much your own negligence would need to be to prevent you from winning anything in the lawsuit varies by state and may be affected by the contract you have with the carrier (which I mention below).

Next, the flight attendant and the airline are only liable if the flight attendant who hit your knee was negligent. It is quite possible that the flight attendant took reasonable care in operating the cart, simply couldn't see your knee from where he or she was in pushing the cart, and in that case the flight attendant and airline are not responsible for the injury. Sometimes injuries happen that are not the fault of anyone else. And remember, you as the plaintiff would bear the burden to prove the negligence.

Furthermore, you may only recover your provable damages in a personal injury lawsuit. Here that would be your medical bills (but you don't seem to have any beyond maybe the paramedic bill as you've not seen a doctor), lost income, and some amount for pain and suffering, which won't be much for a temporary injury that heals in a few days or few weeks and for which there is no permanent damage. Your total damages are, so far as I can tell, not all that much here. At least not enough to interest most personal injury lawyers to take it on a contingent fee. You might find lawyers willing to do it on an hourly fee, but then your cost to sue the airline here may well exceed the amount of damages you might realistically win.

Lastly, it also matters what airline this was because the contract of carriage between you and the airline will impact some of this. For example, at least one U.S. carrier has a provision in the contract of carriage that states that it shall not be liable for any injury to a passenger if the passenger was himself/herself in any way negligent.

I get that you do not like how the flight attendants reacted after your knee was hit. Certainly they could have done a much better job of customer service on that one. But just going by what you have said here, I'm not seeing a particularly strong suit for negligence nor a whole lot in damages, which would make this not a very good personal injury case to litigate. You may, of course, consult a personal injury lawyer or two to see if there might be something worth going for here after all the facts are reviewed by the lawyer. But suing the airline for some money is all you can do here. There is nothing else to do and nothing you can do to force the airline to punish the flight attendants for the poor customer service they provided.

 

[zddoodah]

Your post raises no legal issue. What happened was an accident that was, in large part, caused by your knee being in the aisle when the drink cart was being pushed down the aisle, and you apparently suffered no compensable damages.

Everything else is merely a customer service issue.