Flight Compensation Claim. what constitutes extraordinary circumstances

Mark2spark

Urban, read the bit in the EU261/2004 regulations that go:

Extraordinary circumstances should be deemed to exist
where the impact of an air traffic management decision
in relation to a particular aircraft on a particular day
gives rise to a long delay, an overnight delay, or the
cancellation of one or more flights by that aircraft, even
though all reasonable measures had been taken by the
air carrier concerned to avoid the delays or cancellations.

---

It's clear that EC's relate to a particular aircraft on a particular day, thus ruling out knock on effects.

Chris1447

Has anybody got any further input as to what are considered as extraordinary circumstances either from the CAA or as a result of a small claim court hearing. The same reason keeps appearing like Cracked windscreen and rudder problems. It seems a number of people have applied to the small claims court but has any cases yet been heard. How long does it take for the court case after applying. I have just sent in my claim and am awaiting a response.

Mark2spark

About 4 months to get a hearing date seems to be the ball park time.
That's after the airlines have faffed about acknowledging claims at the last minute, and filing the defence at the last minute, etc etc

That's why the advice is not to play their games with application forms and photocopies of this that and the other. Just comply with the court pre action protocols as detailed in the FAQ's and get your court claim filed asap.

avnire

Mark2spark wrote: »

Urban, read the bit in the that go:

Extraordinary circumstances should be deemed to exist
where the impact of an air traffic management decision
in relation to a particular aircraft on a particular day
gives rise to a long delay, an overnight delay, or the
cancellation of one or more flights by that aircraft, even
though all reasonable measures had been taken by the
air carrier concerned to avoid the delays or cancellations.

---

It's clear that EC's relate to a particular aircraft on a particular day, thus ruling out knock on effects.

I might have a similar situation. Wizz air has rejected my claim referring to "extraordinary circumstances" caused by a bird strike. The weird thing is that I could not find evidence for this. However they had a bird strike a day before my flight on a different route.

"Incident: Wizzair A320 at Eindhoven on Jun 27th 2011, bird strike

A Wizzair Airbus A320-200, registration HA-LWK performing flight W6-1825 from Wroclaw (Poland) to Eindhoven (Netherlands), completed a seemingly uneventful flight, although the crew thought a bird strike might have happened during approach. The airplane landed safely.

A post flight inspection revealed that the right hand engine (V2527) ingested a bird. The return flight had to be cancelled, the aircraft remained on the ground over night and departed the following day to Katowice (Poland)."

My flight should have departed at 6am from Budapest to London Luton on the 28th June 2011. Is it possible that the same aircraft should have served my route? Where can I check that? Or is it possible the airline is simply lying to me (in the article above only the return flight was cancelled to Wroclaw, or as a chain of events my flight got delayed by this - no comprendo)?

ceraliam

Hi below is a copy of an email I received from Monarch:-

Thank you for your email.

I can see from our records that correspondence regarding your claim was sent to
you on the 22/02/2013, please find a copy of this below:


Our Ref

22 February 2013

Dear Ceraliam

Re: MON1829 Corfu to Manchester on 31st May 2010

Further to your claim for delay compensation, we are writing to advise the outcome of our investigation into your case.

Monarch Airlines aims as its first priority to provide its passengers with a safe and efficient service. We would like to reassure you that every reasonable effort is made to ensure that our flights depart on time and in the unlikely event we are unable to do so through disruption, we aim to provide a solution at the earliest opportunity.

As previously advised, in some circumstances passengers may be entitled to compensation for delay arising from such disruption under European Union laws. However, any monetary payments are subject to certain criteria being satisfied.
Under these laws where the disruption is caused by an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ which the airline was reasonably unable to prevent, the carrier is not obliged to pay compensation. Extraordinary circumstances have been defined
by the courts and the European Regulations themselves provide a non-exhaustive list of which circumstances can indeed be categorised as extraordinary.

Our records show that due to an aircraft from within our fleet having sustained significant damage after having been hit by a ground vehicle, there were insufficient aircraft from within our fleet to operate your flight on time. In order to reduce the delay to your departure, we transferred passengers to the
first available aircraft from within our fleet to operate your flight.

Having considered the factual background of this case, we are satisfied that the disruption was caused by an extraordinary circumstance that could not have reasonably been prevented by Monarch Airlines. We are, therefore, unable to accept your claim for compensation for the reasons given.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can provide any further assistance or information.

Yours sincerely,

EU Claims Team

We were told at the time about the accident to the plane but this was not our plane it was another flight but they used our plane to then transport the passengers to their destination and we had to wait for that flight to return to Manchester and then fly out to Corfu for us.
Is it worth pursuing this claim further or can anyone advise on wether this does constitute as "extraordinary circumstance"

Thanks

111KAB

Ceraliam - NOT extraordinary circumstances in any shape or form. You should post on Monarch thread and then make your decision to either walk away, undertake claim yourself or use a no win/no fee firm.

ceraliam

111KAB wrote: »

Ceraliam - NOT extraordinary circumstances in any shape or form. You should post on Monarch thread and then make your decision to either walk away, undertake claim yourself or use a no win/no fee firm.

Hi, when you say post on monarch thread, what do you mean. I am new to this forum thing and not sure what I am doing....help!

Caz3121

ceraliam wrote: »

Hi, when you say post on monarch thread, what do you mean. I am new to this forum thing and not sure what I am doing....help!

there are delay/compensation threads set up for a number of the airlines. The Monarch one is here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4384583

Madkaos

Can anybody recommend a no win no fee to use as I don't think I m confident enough to do it myself.

harveysimon

where are you up to with your claim ?
its seems that monarch are one of the worst culprits re flight delays & operational excuses :T which do not hold water with me as they should have sufficient planes to cover aircraft faults ,which they appear not to have (pay as you go basis very poor)
anybody add any further comments please