A Ryanair flight attendant has been awarded an €84,790 compensation payout after she sustained a serious arm injury when she slipped on greasy de-icing fluid during a flight from Dublin to Warsaw in February 2018.
Judge Alexander Owens sitting in the Irish High Court dismissed Ryanair’s argument that crew member Fiona Nangle, 40, was the “author of her own misfortune” because she failed to look out for the presence of de-icing fluid that passengers had treaded onto the plane as they boarded.
The judge also rejected Ryanair’s claim that as a cabin supervisor, Ms Nangle should have been aware of the hazards presented by de-icing and, as such, should of anticipated a potential slip hazard.
Ms Nangle was sat at the front of the Boeing 737 aircraft on February 11, 2018, on what should have been a routine flight from Dublin to Warsaw. Due to chilly conditions that morning, the wings of the aircraft had been de-iced and some of the fluid had run off onto the ‘apron’ where passengers walk outside to board the aircraft.
Shortly after takeoff and after the pilots had signalled it was safe for crew to leave their seats, Ms Nangle got up from her jumpseat and went into the galley to complete some paperwork.
She told the court that she stepped off a mat close to the main cabin door and onto the vinyl galley floor where she slipped. Ms Nangle tried to grab hold of something to prevent her from falling but, according to the Irish Times, she “fell in a heap on the floor”.
Ms Nangle suffered a fracture to her right humerus which required surgery and left her immobile for several months.
Justice Owen estimated that as many as 450 passengers had walked past Ms Nangle on the flights she had worked on that aircraft the morning of the accident. As a result, a substantial amount of de-icing fluid may have been treaded into the cabin.
Despite claiming that Ms Nangle should have been aware of the hazard of de-icing fluid, the airline sent a circular to cabin crew the day after her accident, warning staff about the dangers of slipping.
Ms Nangle’s lawyers argued that if Ryanair had sent the memo earlier, she could have avoided being injured.
I never knew your spine was in your arm! Please re-read the original article and then update the title to your post. The flight attendant suffered a “spiral fracture to her right humerus”. In other words, she broke her arm.