ECJ judgment
Airline must pay compensation for flight cancellation even after the death of the co-pilot
Even after a flight cancellation, an airline has to pay compensation.
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The European Court of Justice has ruled that the death of a pilot is no reason to withhold compensation from passengers. The reason for the lawsuit was a flight cancellation by the Portuguese airline TAP.
The sudden death of the co-pilot before departure does not release the airline from its obligation to compensate passengers for the canceled flight. This was decided by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg and justified its judgment with the fact that airlines regularly have to expect the unexpected loss of key employees.
Tragic, but not exceptional
Such a death is tragic, but does not justify an exceptional circumstance within the meaning of the Air Passenger Rights Regulation, the ECJ explained. Several passengers from Germany can now hope for money from the Portuguese airline TAP. You had booked a flight from Stuttgart to Lisbon for July 2019.
Two hours before the scheduled departure, the co-pilot, a previously apparently healthy, middle-aged man, was unexpectedly found dead in his hotel room. The entire crew was in shock and reported unfit to fly. The flight to Lisbon was cancelled.
Claim after flight cancellation
The passengers were transferred to Portugal ten and a half hours later on a replacement flight. The legal assistants Flightright and Myflightright assert claims for a compensation payment against TAP on their behalf and went to court in Germany. TAP did not want to pay because the co-pilot’s death was an exceptional circumstance.
The Stuttgart Regional Court suspended the proceedings and asked the ECJ whether it saw it the same way. He now denied. According to the ECJ ruling, the Stuttgart court must decide on the specific cases. It is bound by the legal interpretation of the ECJ.