A 26-yr-old woman was given €55,000 in damages against Ryanair for scalding her thighs and abdomen during a trip, reports RTE.
Lidija Miliute, whose parents are Lithuanian, told the court that she was raised in Co Wexford her entire life and was flying from Lithuania to Dublin when a cup of tea spilt over her after slipping from a faulty “slanted” tray table.
Despite receiving first assistance in a toilet from cabin crew and a flight nurse, she told Circuit Civil Court Judge James O’Donohoe that the boiling hot liquid left her in excruciating discomfort for about two hours of the trip, reports RTE.
When the event happened an hour into the trip from Palenga Airport to Dublin on March 28, 2022, Barrister Conor Kearney, who represented Ms. Miliute in court with Mark Tiernan of Tiernan Solicitors, informed the judge that she had sustained extremely severe second-degree burns.
“She was left with ongoing blemishes particularly on her abdomen and thighs and has a permanent scar to her wrist,” added Carney, reports RTE.
The cup slipped from the cup holder indentation on the tray and spilt over Ms. Miliute, the store manager of The Chase, Ramsgate Village, Gorey, Co Wexford, where she was pouring milk to her tea on a clumsy and sloped tray table.
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After receiving cold water and cream treatment in the loo, she was asked whether she needed an ambulance to pick her up at Dublin Airport, reports RTE.
She had sought care from her general practitioner upon landing in Dublin, but she needed to be treated at St. Vincent’s University Hospital a few days later.
She had to use the loo a lot throughout the trip in order to apply cold water to her really severe burns, reports RTE.
She claimed that her tray table was tilted in her direction when the tea was brought, and that a cabin crew member had urged her to try a tray table in the seat next to her, but that one was likewise tilted.
Employees of the cabin crew who testified in court stated that they would never have permitted a traveler to remain seated at a seat with a loose or broken tray.
The passenger would have been transferred to a different seat and the seat would have been cordoned off, reports RTE.
Before the spill, one crew member claimed to have noticed Ms. Miliute shifting around in her seat as though searching for something, but she was unable to determine whether or not her actions were a factor in the mishap.
The court was informed by a Ryanair technical services engineer that aeroplane cabins were regularly inspected and that logs of any necessary repairs were maintained, reports RTE.
A tilted or broken tray table had not been discussed, according to the senior crew steward.
Judge O’Donohoe said: “The injuries, it is fair to say, are more of blemish types rather than permanent scarring apart from the scar on her wrist but they are certainly disfiguring,” reports RTE.
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