Talk about learning something new every day…here’s one for you. It turns out that flight delayed passengers CAN claim compensation for delays caused by lightning strikes.

A £17.6million court case stands to benefit 54,000 delayed passengers in the UK as the judge rules that lightning strikes are NOT one of the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ that excuse airlines from paying flight delay compensation.

European Flight Delay Regulation EC 261/2004 says that passengers delayed by three hours or more in the last six years may be able to claim up to €600 compensation, as long as the delay was not caused by extraordinary circumstances. However, the regulation does not provide a specific list of extraordinary circumstances, leading to long court battles between airlines and delayed passengers.

[bctt tweet=”Flight delayed passengers CAN claim compensation for delays from lightning strikes!”]

The details:
Bott & Co Solicitors, who acted on behalf of Michael Evans say the ruling could benefit 54,000 delayed passengers across the different airlines, totalling £17.6million in flight delay compensation.

Her Honour Judge Melissa Clarke ruled in favour of passengers Michael Evans and Julie Lee in the appeal case and awarded the passengers €600 (£450) each for a five-hour flight delay.

Although the decision is not legally binding on other courts, it follows an appeal hearing at Luton County Court (where a large amount of flight delay cases are heard) and is the lead case on the issue of lightning strikes.  As such, the decision will be highly persuasive in flight delay cases involving lightning in English and Welsh courts.

Why the ruling?
Planes are designed in such a way that when they are struck by lightning mid-air it is not considered a danger to passengers on-board. The vast majority of aircrafts that are struck by lightning arrive safely and on time. However, delays occur when the plane lands and is subject to mandatory safety checks and the airline does not have relief aircraft in place to ensure passengers on any subsequent flights are not delayed.

In this case Monarch did not have spare aircraft available so passengers had to wait for the plane that had been struck by lightning to go through safety procedures in Gatwick.

Michael Evans from Northamptonshire (who was on his way home from a two-week holiday with his partner Julie Lee when he suffered the five-hour delay) said: “When we got to the airport to check in we must have been standing queuing for an hour or so, before staff told us to get out of the line. We were stuck in the departure lounge for hours.

“When we finally got back to England five hours late, waiting for our bags took over an hour and a half.  That was the final straw. Now every time we talk about this holiday all we mention is the delay so it’s kind of taken the shine off it. At least the compensation we’re finally getting will go some way to make up for that.”

Although the Regulation does not give specific examples of extraordinary circumstances, case law says that an event must be something that is not ‘inherent in the normal exercise of the carrier’s activity’ in order to be considered extraordinary.

Bott & Co Solicitors successfully argued that lightning strikes cannot be considered extraordinary because they are part of the day to day running of any airline: “Aircraft fly through the skies. On occasion they are struck by lightning and they are designed to withstand such lightning strikes, continue flying, reach their destination and then be investigated and repaired according to the manufacturer’s instructions. This is not extraordinary. It is entirely inherent in the normal exercise of the carrier’s activity and that is exactly what happened in this case.”

Monarch argued that when a plane has to undergo mandatory checks after a lightning strike, this should be considered an ‘unexpected flight safety shortcoming’, which is one of the events that Regulation EC 261/2004 states MAY be an extraordinary circumstance.

But Her Honour Judge Melissa Clarke ruled: “Damage caused by a lightning strike may well be an unexpected flight safety shortcoming, but that does not make it an exceptional circumstance…an unexpected flight safety shortcoming is only an exceptional circumstance if it is not inherent within the normal exercise of the carrier’s activity.”

The Civil Aviation Authority includes lightning strikes in its list of extraordinary circumstances, but the list is not legally binding and has been proven wrong in court a number of times.