Woman who fell down plane’s steps loses damages claim

A woman who fell down the exit stairs of a Ryanair plane at Dublin Airport three years ago has lost a €60,000 damages claim for personal injuries against the airline and has been ordered to pay Ryanair’s legal costs.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane said Sabrina Melloni was carrying two pieces of hand luggage and her handbag as she disembarked from a Boeing 737 and did not avail of the handrails on either side of the steps.

Andrew Walker, counsel for Ryanair, told the Circuit Civil Court that Ms Melloni, a 51-year-old multilingual customer care co-ordinator, of Beechfield House, Oulton Rd, Clontarf, Dublin 3, was exiting a London to Dublin flight at 11.30am on New Year’s Eve when she slipped and fell.

Mr Walker said she had brought the claim under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention on the basis the stairs, which were lowered from the body of the aircraft, were wet and slippery, and caused her fall.

Judge Linnane, handing down a reserved judgment, said a full defence was delivered by Ryanair and Mr Walker specifically pleaded that the claim or incident did not come within the provisions of Article 17 of the convention.

Ms Melloni was therefore precluded from maintaining any cause of action against Ryanair.

The judge said it was not disputed that Ms Melloni had fallen and been injured when using the stairs, but Ryanair denied they were wet. Ms Melloni fell on her face and suffered a bump to her forehead and soft tissue injuries that cleared up after some months.

Mr Walker told the court Article 17 of the Convention provided that “the carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger upon condition only that the accident which caused the death or injury took place on board the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking”.

Judge Linnane said the Montreal Convention had been transposed into Irish law through the Air Navigation and Transport (International Convention) Act of 2004 and provided an exclusive cause of action and sole remedy against the carrier and restricted a claimant to proceedings against the carrier.

She said Ms Melloni was with her nine-year-old daughter at the time and they were disembarking from the front of the aircraft after up to 70 other passengers had disembarked ahead of them without incident using the same stairs.

Not 'an accident'

Judge Linnane said Ms Melloni was in front of her daughter and carrying both her own piece of hand luggage and that of her daughter, along with her handbag, and was not using the handrails when she fell down a number of steps, landing on the tarmac.

The judge said Mr Walker claimed that what had taken place was not “an accident” within the meaning of Article 17 of the Convention.

The judge said weather records for December 31, 2015, showed there was no rain recorded in Dublin until 4pm that afternoon, more than four hours after Ms Melloni had fallen.

She found her fall was not an “accident” within the meaning of Article 17 of the Convention.

The court concluded that Article 17 contemplated, by the term accident, “a distinct event, not being any part of the usual, normal, and expected operation of the aircraft”.