Medical emergency

Tyzap

Hi Nigem,

Here is an example of the type of things that can happen with what the airlines often claim to be a medical emergency.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=75168796&postcount=8488

The airline initially refused compensation and yet Bott & Co managed to secure it! Proving that not all medical emergencies are such an emergency after all.

In this case it seems the crew member called in sick before the flight, so the problem became a logistics/operational problem for the airline rather that a genuine medical emergency.

Good luck.

nigem

This was a genuine medical emergency, involving a seriously ill passenger 1 hour into an 8 hour flight. But the plane returned to the airport, needed checking over and the crew were out of hours.
I was wondering if the medical emergency could be the cause of the whole delay, or just the initial emergency part.

Tyzap

nigem wrote: »

This was a genuine medical emergency, involving a seriously ill passenger 1 hour into an 8 hour flight. But the plane returned to the airport, needed checking over and the crew were out of hours.
I was wondering if the medical emergency could be the cause of the whole delay, or just the initial emergency part.

I would give Botts a call and discus your particular case with them, they are always happy to talk to potential claimants:)

jpsartre

nigem wrote: »

I was wondering if the medical emergency could be the cause of the whole delay, or just the initial emergency part.

Well it clearly WAS a cause of the whole delay but that in itself doesn't settle whether there's a valid claim or not. Just because the crew ran out of hours because of a medical situation doesn't entail that there were no reasonable steps the airline could have taken to prevent the delay.

peachyprice

dbrookf wrote: »

It was an Emirates flight from Dubai that was due in at 07:00 for us to board at 08:45 hours. However that particular flight had to turn back to base, as a medical emergency occurred and once they have got that sorted out the flight then took off again for us to board eventually at 15:45 hours.

Tyzap wrote: »

If the op was on the flight from Dubai they would not have a valid claim, however, as they were waiting for the next flight, they do have a valid claim, if they want to pursue it. At some point the EC has to end and I believe that point is at the end of the affected flight, as it is with bad weather.

Grey_Critic wrote: »

The regulations assume that the airline has several planes standing by just in case, they don’t of course.

I don't believe they do have a valid claim.

For OP's flight to be delayed by only 7 hours Emirates must have sent another plane over from their base at DXB as soon as they realised there was an emegency, therefore doing as EU216 expected them to do to mitigate the delay.

There is no way, with a 7 hr delay, the original plane had time to get 1 hr into a flight, turn around and fly back to DXB, offload the ill passenger and make the 8 hour flight back to MAN to leave at 15.45.

jpsartre

I'm not sure those timings work out. Strictly speaking, if they had sent out another plane as soon as the emergency happened, the overall delay would be 1 hour, no? By the way, note that there are two posters posting about a medical emergency, dbrookf was delayed 7 hours, nigem doesn't mention how long he was delayed.

nigem

The eventual delay was 22 hours, after we had been given accommodation overnight. It was not a scheduled flight and no crew or planes spare I imagine.