How Do Passengers Get Injured From Aircraft Overhead Bins and What Can They Do About It?
We have all heard the announcements, while on board an aircraft, to be careful when opening the overhead bin after a flight, as contents may shift, and someone may be getting out of their seat just below. The air injury team at Abrams Landau, Ltd. has successfully represented a number of injured passengers who are harmed by the overhead bins. There are three types of cases that Doug Landau and Kristen Tanzi have worked on in order to get compensation for the injured passenger.
First, because travelers are reluctant to pay for checked baggage, overweight, baggage, or extra bags, they are stuffing more into their carry-on luggage. This excess weight has not only led to injuries to flight attendance assisting in lifting these items into the overhead bins, resulting in torn rotator cuff, cervical spine, injury, and other work related injuries, but the additional weight has led to the failure of the units themselves. In other words, there are sections of the plane that contain the air conditioning, light, call Bell and Oxygen masks within the overhead Ben unit. When the screws are not tightened, maintenance is not regularly performed, or the sheer weight leads to system failure, the entire unit can fall. Abrams Landau Ltd. was successful in securing a settlement for a military traveler who got clocked by one of these overhead units, when it fell on his head during a hard landing at Reagan national airport.
In another case, a very heavy bag fell out of the overhead bin onto a traveler. It wasn’t that Travelers‘s bad, in the operation was being performed by a flight attendant. Therefore, the injured victim had a case against the Airlines, for negligent handling of a bag. In cases were bags fall out while being loaded by another passenger, the claim may be against only that passenger, and not the Airlines.
In a case, currently being handled by the ABRAMS LANDAU workers compensation airline injury team, a flight attendant sustained a concussion due to the configuration of the overhead Ben. When an overhead Ben pops open, and strikes a flight attendant in the head, that would be a workers compensation case. If it turns out that there was a failure of some product, not maintained by United Airlines or its crew of repair people, then a third-party case may be brought against the manufacturer, or maintenance group.
Doug Landau advises: “be careful around overfilled, extra heavy overhead bins these days. There are machines on the market that suck the air out of sweaters & other bulky clothing, making these carry-on items denser than mercury! Our flight attendant clients team will tell us that they are torn between wanting to help elderly travelers and disabled folks get their bags into the overhead bins, but knowing that these bags might cause injury to them themselves or other passengers in the vicinity. They have mixed feelings, and while some airlines say, they don’t have to assist passengers, they are in the service, providing industry that requires good relations, as they are going to be traveling together sometimes for many hours.”
If you were someone you care for who has been injured due to an incident involving the failure of an overhead bin, a flight crew member dropping a bag on them, or other in flight incident, and there are questions about legal rights, please reach out to us.