Passenger sues airline after a CUSTOMER drops a bag on her head from the overhead cabin
The woman is seeking more than £120k in damages from China Eastern Airlines after the incident
A WOMAN has been left with a permanent dent on her forehead and other injuries after a suitcase fell out of a plane’s overhead compartment and landed on her head.
Kalisfena Egorova, 37, from Sydney, is seeking more than £120,000 in damages from China Eastern Airlines after the incident on a flight from Beijing to Sydney, with a stopover in Nanjing, in March last year.
Ms Egorova said she suffered a concussion and sore neck immediately after the incident, which happened during boarding time at Beijing airport, and continues to suffer from persistent headaches and a permanent dent on her forehead.
She claimed that she was getting settled in her aisle seat in economy at the start of the flight when a passenger, who had opened the overhead compartment directly above her, lost his hold and dropped a heavy, wheeled suitcase on her head.
She said: “The passenger was trying to put his luggage in.
“The flight attendant was standing there and the passenger was pushing [the bag] and maybe there was no space.
“It was actually shocking for me [when the bag dropped]. It took me by surprise. It was very painful.”
Ms Egorova, who was travelling on her own, said the suitcase landed on her by the wheel and also struck her upper body, but that the matter was made worse when it appeared no one was willing to help her as she cried out in pain.
She said: “It was shocking for them, I was in tears, I was yelling that I needed ice but the thing is the flight attendant didn’t speak English.
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“I was crying in pain, screaming ‘ice’ and all of the passengers were just looking at me.”
Ms Egorova said she got out of her seat and rushed to the galley, where she was given ice to tend her injury.
On a stopover at Nanjing, Ms Egorova said she was assessed by a doctor but was keen to continue her journey to Australia.
In a statement, a spokesperson for China Eastern Airlines (CEA) said cabin crew on the plane administered first aid to Ms Egorova “for a minor injury” and recommended she be examined by a doctor, “but she declined and insisted to take the flight from Beijing to Nanjing”.
The statement continued: “After [flight] MU727 landed at Nanjing International Airport, to ensure the passenger’s wellbeing, CEA cabin crew requested the local ground handling CEA staff to arrange an examination by the airport medical centre’s doctor.
“The injured passenger was accompanied by CEA staff and [the passenger who dropped the bag] during the whole examination, and medical staff cleared her of any serious concern.
“[Considering] Nanjing-Sydney flight time was a long-haul, 10-plus-hours flight, the doctor recommended the injured passenger to stay and have a follow-up at the hospital [but] she declined the recommendation and she decided to continue the flight back to Sydney.”
The spokesperson said when the flight landed in Sydney, Ms Egorova was offered a hospital examination by airline staff at Sydney airport.
They added: “Again, she declined, and hence CEA Sydney airport ground handing staff gave the emergency contact number to her and told her to contact us if she needed further assistance."
The Shanghai-based carrier said it was working with Ms Egorova’s lawyer on the matter.
According to her claim, since the incident Ms Egorova has also experienced post-concussive syndrome, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, panic attacks, loss of income and will lose superannuation entitlements, among other things.
Ms Egorova’s lawyer, Thomas Janson from Shine Lawyers, said it was the airline’s responsibility to make sure passengers were placing their luggage in overhead compartments correctly.
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