Compensation Refused Due To Medical Emergency to Crew

Ja0005

Hello, 

I was on an EasyJet flight to Dalaman that was diverted to Split due to the pilot becoming ill - this flight departed around an hour late.

We were at Split airport for 6 hours waiting for replacement crew. The plane the crew were flown in on (scheduled flight from Manchester) was also delayed for around an hour, and the crew from Man-Dal were flown back to Manchester on the return flight) 

I eventually landed in Dalaman over 7 hours later than scheduled, at around 3am local time. 

EasyJet have rejected my claim as Extraordinary Circumstances, but I'm not sure that staff sickness counts as EC's and I also believe that the solution they came up with was the most convenient for them rather than the passengers. I also think the 7 hour delayed landing is excessive. 

They emailed me from a No Reply address, so I'm not sure how and where to respond. Any advice greatly appreciated. 

BTW I asked after the pilot on our return flight, and he was well, so some good news.

eskbanker

My understanding is also that crew sickness isn't generally considered to be extraordinary circumstances, in the context of staff not reporting for duty at the start of a shift, i.e. where it's reasonable to expect that the airline should be able to rustle up standby crew.

However, for a pilot to become ill while in flight, to the extent that an emergency medical diversion was needed, then I'd have thought that there's not much the airline could reasonably have been expected to do to avert or mitigate this?  Safety regulations will presumably mandate that there are two fit pilots at all times but having a third spare one on each flight, just in case, doesn't seem a reasonable expectation, for example?

The regulations include in the definition of extraordinary circumstances "unexpected flight safety shortcomings [and strikes] that affect the operation of an operating air carrier", so personally I wouldn't have thought it difficult for EasyJet to apply that (admittedly wide-ranging) term here.

In terms of 'excessive' delay, the compensation regime doesn't recognise degrees of delay, i.e. even if there were no extraordinary circumstances then a delay of seven hours is compensated in exactly the same way as one of three hours.  If you can make a case that the airline caused unnecessary delay by their choice of response then they may be willing to offer some sort of goodwill gesture, but I suspect that it'll be fruitless to pursue a statutory compensation claim any further....

Westin

Agree with above.