The difficulty with which so many airline passengers seemingly have with opening and closing airplane bathroom doors has long been the butt of jokes amongst flight attendants but the issue with which one Delta Air Lines passenger had with a lavatory door is certainly no laughing matter.
Yanping Wei from Shanghai, China, has filed a lawsuit in a US federal court against the airline claiming that she was left disfigured when a bathroom door suddenly swung open and smashed into her face during a flight from Shanghai to Detroit.
According to recently filed court documents, Yanping was traveling with Delta on December 22, 2023, and at some point during the lengthy 13 hour flight, nature called, and Yanping got up from her seat to use the lavatory.
As she approached the restroom, however, she alleges that the door “suddenly and unexpectedly” swung open and hit her in the face, sending several of her teeth flying, cutting her face and leaving her bruised and battered.
Most commercial aircraft are now fitted with bi-fold or concertina doors that open in on themselves. Not only are these types of door incredibly space efficient but it would also be physically impossible for one to suddenly swing open and smash into an innocent passenger’s face.
However, many airlines equip their aircraft with at least one restroom with a conventional outward opening toilet in order to comply with disability access requirements.
On the Airbus A350-900 aircraft which Delta uses to operate its Shanghai to Detroit route, there is one restroom with a conventional door located in the Economy section in the middle of the aircraft.
And whilst uncommon, its not unknown for these doors to swing open. Perhaps not with the force that Yanping says occurred during her flight to Detroit in December 2023, but still they can swing outwards unexpectedly.
This is normally because the last passenger to use the lavatory failed to latch the door properly or because a passenger exiting the lavatory has swung open the door themselves.
To sue Delta, Yanping is relying upon Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, an globally recognized law that makes airlines liable for injuries sustained by passengers during the course of an international flight.
Ordinarily, injured passengers can claim for up to 128,821 Special Drawing Rights – an international asset created by the IMF representing a basket of different currencies (which is equivalent to around $172,000).
However, this is merely a threshold and not a cap, and courts are allowed to award victims much higher compensation payouts if they see fit.
Airlines don’t have many defenses they can rely upon if a claim is brought against them under the Montreal Convention but they can try to convince the court that the victim’s injuries were down to their own negligence which the airline can’t be held responsible.
That doesn’t seem to be the case in this situation, although Delta is yet o file a response to the lawsuit. Alternatively, if Delta discovered that another passenger opened the door with force from inside, they could file their own lawsuit against that passenger to cover the cost of any court proceedings brought by Yanping.
Admittedly, this isn’t a common tactic, but several years ago Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus took the unusual step of suing a passenger who took their bag out of an overhead locker with such force that a heavy bottle came flying out and hit another passenger on the head.
The victim sued Aer Lingus under the Montreal Convention, and in response, the airline sued the person who it claimed was responsible. In the end, however, Aer Lingus managed to reach an out of court settlement with the victim.
In order to prevent conventional lavatory doors from swinging up with too much force, they are normally hinged so that they open towards the front of the aircraft. Why? Because at cruising altitude, large aircraft like the Airbus A350 have a slight nose-up attitude, with the nose higher than the tail, meaning that the lavatory door shouldn’t swing open with too much force.
