Am I able to claim compensation

BradleyWickham

I recently flew from Newark to London Heathrow but whilst flying there was an announcement on the plane advising that a passenger is in need of 'urgent medical treatment' and the plane had to land at the nearest airport, that being St John's Airport, Canada.
We landed here at 4am on Thursday morning and were told that a plane flying from San Francisco to London Heathrow would be diverting and landing at St John's Airport at roughly 7am to pick all passengers up.
Me and my partner went to sleep at this point as we had to stay on the plane for 3 hours. When we woke up, I spoke to one of the cabin crew and they advised this was no longer happening and that we are now going to a hotel. We got told that we would have our suitcases and that we would be flying either later that day or the following day.
When in the airport we then found out we would not be receiving our cases so we were going to the hotel with just our hand luggage and not being able to change our clothes from the previous day or having access to any medical equipment/needs in our case.
When at the hotel all of our meals and accommodation was covered for by the airline. We then had a letter off the hotel to say that we were getting picked up at 7pm and that our new flight is at 9:50pm.
We were due to arrive at London Heathrow on the 02/02/2017 at 09:10am but actually arrived 03/02/2017 at approximately 06:30am.
Does anyone know if I can get compensation for this?
Thanks in advance.

BradleyWickham

When I said passenger in need of 'urgent medical treatment' when we landed the cabin crew advised us that it was in fact the pilot who was in need of 'urgent medical treatment'
Again do I get any compensation for this?
Thanks again in advance

Caz3121

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5173888

Alan_Bowen

On the face of it the answer is 'no' to your question. If this was an emergency, and the pilot being ill would fall into that category, then compensation is not payable. I also suspect you may have been flying on United Airlines, in which case the rules on compensation do not apply since you were on a non EU airline flying from a non EU airport.

BradleyWickham

We flew with Virgin Atlantic...

shaun_from_Africa

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

I also suspect you may have been flying on United Airlines, in which case the rules on compensation do not apply since you were on a non EU airline flying from a non EU airport.

The flight concerned was operated by Virgin Atlantic, (flight VS2) but you are totally correct in saying that compensation isn't due as illness of a passenger or crew member classes as extraordinary circumstances outside of the control of the airline.

Tyzap

Here is what a leading solicitors think on the subject.

http://www.bottonline.co.uk/flight-delay-compensation/claim-guides/flight-delays-caused-by-crew-sickness?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bottandco#31.1.17

shaun_from_Africa

What it boils down to is that if a flight is delayed due to crew sickness then yes, you should have a valid claim for compensation as the airline should have a contingency plan in place to cover staff shortages.

However, if sickness causes a flight diversion, there is no way that the airline could have anticipated or prevented this so the subsequent time on the ground is definitely something that would be outside of the control, of the airline.