Death Of Pilot No Excuse For Delay, Rules EU

280
May 12, 2023
Pilot
Versatility with TAP's A321LR. Photo: TAP

The cancellation of a flight due to the sudden death of a pilot does not exempt an airline from its obligation to compensate passengers for the delay, the European Court of Justice said on Thursday Reuters reported.

JOIN: AirlineRatings.com YouTube Channel

GET: Accurate MH370 Information From AirlineRatings.com Newsletter

SEE: GT’s Radar Slams Netflix MH370 Doco

The EU top court’s judgment is in relation to a TAP Portugal flight that was cancelled on July 17, 2019, because the co-pilot was found dead in his hotel bed less than two hours before the scheduled departure time.

The early morning 6:05 am. flight from Stuttgart to Lisbon was cancelled as the crew declared themselves unfit to fly due to the shock of the event.

As the airline does not have a base at Stuttgart there was no replacement crew available and a new crew had to be flown in and there was a 10-hour delay.

TAP declined to pay compensation to passengers as it claimed that the death of the co-pilot was an extraordinary circumstance which exempted it from its obligation to compensate passengers.

German local and regional courts held TAP liable for compensation, a Dutch court had separately held that unexpected crew illness amounted to an event beyond the airline’s control.

But the EU court dismissed that argument, claiming that dealing with an unexpected absence, including due to illness or death, is “intrinsically linked” to the crew planning that is part of an airline’s normal activities.

Airlineratings.com was developed to provide everyone in the world with a one-stop shop for everything related to airlines, formed by a team of aviation editors, who have forensically researched nearly every airline in the world.

Our rating system is rated from one to seven stars on safety – with seven being the highest ranking. Within each airline, you will find the country of origin, airline code, booking URL and seat map information. The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies, lead associations, as well as the airlines, own safety data. Every airline has a safety rating breakdown so you can see exactly how they rate.

Over 360 of the airlines on the site that carry 99 per cent of the world’s passengers have a product rating. Given that low-cost, regional and full-service carriers are so different we have constructed a different rating system for each which can be found within each airline

Airlineratings.com has information on over 30 types of aircraft from the latest Boeing 787 to the A380 and smaller jets.

Best of all, there are simple answers to many of the quirky questions including:

  • “What are all those noises after takeoff and before landing?”
  • “Why do you have to put the window shades up for landing and takeoff?”
  • “What is a winglet and what is it for?
  • “Why is it so costly to fly short distances?”
  • “How often is an aircraft maintained?
  • “How strong is a wing?”
  • “How do they test aircraft”