Technical fault or Safety issue? - Reject Icelandair claim

violentvinyl

Hello helpful people!

I've recently had a claim to Icelandair rejected with the following text:

As you will understand, the safety of our passengers and crew is our first priority. When flight FI615 was on its way to New York our pilots received an alert of an unexpected malfunction. In such a situation -when flight safety could be involved- according to very strict regulations there is no other option then to land the aircraft for inspection. In this case the flight had to divert back to Keflav!k. This unfortunately caused disruption for our passengers travel plans on flights FI615 and FI614 of July 25th 2015.

The European Court of Justice has determined that passengers might be entitled to compensation if the flight is delayed for more than 4 hours unless such delay is caused by extraordinary circumstances. These are circumstances over which the air carrier has no control, such as bad weather, a strike or "unexpected flight safety shortcomings". In this case the engine alert was an unexpected flight safety shortcoming and there is no entitlement for compensation.

I would argue that an alert of an unexpected malfunction is a technical fault, but because it appears that it happened in the air, Icelandair is claiming a safety issue. Do I have a leg to stand on if I escalate this to the ECC? Also, does it matter that the safety issue occurred on the previous flight? I realize they are the same plane of course.

Thanks for any feedback in advance guys!

JPears

If it happened on the previous flight, you have more of an argument for getting compensation under 261/2004.

violentvinyl

Thanks JPears, it looks like you know a thing or two about dealing with the airlines! Another question if you don't mind: Is it worth going back to Icelandair at this point and making my case again, or at this point is that a futile effort and I should be looking for a "no win, no fee" intermediary or going to the ECC?

Justice13075

Which of the two flights were you on?

violentvinyl

Justice13075 wrote: »

Which of the two flights were you on?

I was on the second one (FI614). From the sound of it, the delay in question was from KEF to JFK (615), which caused a knock on delay to the flight from JFK back to KEF (my flight, 614).

violentvinyl

Sorry to bump an old post, but I figured I'd update quickly for anyone who comes across this. I went back to Icelandair via Resolver to say that because it wasn't my flight that had the safety issue I should be compensated. They ultimately caved and provided compensation. If you're in the same boat, keep trying!

JPears

Well done and thanks for updating us.