Cabin crew knocked over a kettle of hot water onto me while I was asleep on a flight. Burns to my arm and stomach. Do I have a case, and how would I find a solicitor for it? (England)
TL;DR: While I was asleep on a British Airways flight to Europe this summer, a member of the cabin crew knocked over a teapot on the drinks trolley and a quantity of hot water landed on me, scalding my left forearm and the left side of my stomach. The crew apologised and gave me an ice pack, but nothing further was done: no medical assistance was offered when we landed, even though I had told them that the injury might require it, and no doctor has examined it at any point. The burns blistered and wept for about a week, and because I could not expose them to sunlight I spent the remaining seven nights of a holiday costing roughly £3,200 indoors and covered up. The injury is now healing well and I doubt that it will scar. I have timestamped photographs and a witness, I signed the airline's incident report on board, and I have not yet complained to the airline. What I want to know is whether this is a real claim, and if it is, how I would go about finding a solicitor to act.
Earlier this summer I flew short-haul to Europe with British Airways, in economy and in an aisle seat, at the start of a week's holiday that I had booked and paid for several months earlier.
Approximately one hour into the flight, while the crew were serving hot drinks, I was asleep. I woke because there was hot water running down my left side. I did not see any of it happen, and the first thing I was aware of was the water itself. The person sitting next to me was awake, and she says that one of the crew knocked over a teapot on the trolley. The pot did not land on me, but a good deal of what it contained did.
I was wearing a t-shirt, which the water soaked through, so that the hot fabric was held against my skin. I sustained burns to my left forearm and to the left side of my stomach, and both areas were red and blistered within a minute or two.
The crew were apologetic. They gave me an ice pack and asked me repeatedly whether I was all right, and one of them said that she hoped this would not ruin my holiday. I did not tell her that I was fine. I said that it was probably not life-threatening, but that it looked significant and might require medical attention. At the end of the flight a member of the crew took an incident report, which I signed, and which recorded my name, my address, my telephone number and the flight on which I was travelling.
When we landed, nothing further happened. Nobody met the aircraft; nobody directed me to the airport medical service; and nobody suggested that I have the injury looked at. The ice pack was the only assistance that the airline provided at any stage.
I had no travel insurance and no idea how to find a doctor abroad, so I bought dressings from a pharmacy and treated the burns myself. They blistered and wept for about a week, and I have been dressing them ever since. No doctor has examined them at any point.
The real loss was the holiday. I could not expose either area to sunlight, so I spent a week of a summer break indoors and covered up. The trip cost roughly £3,200 in total for the four of us, which I paid for.
The burns are now healing well. The new skin is pink and flexible, there is no numbness, and I do not believe that it will scar permanently.
I have photographs taken from about an hour after we landed and throughout the following week, with their timestamps intact, and the person sitting beside me saw what happened. I have not yet contacted British Airways about any of it.
From reading around the subject, I gather that this is likely to be governed by the Montreal Convention rather than by ordinary negligence, and that an airline's liability for an accident on board does not depend on proving that it was careless. I do not know whether that is correct, or whether the loss of the holiday is something that can be recovered on top of the injury itself.
My two questions are these.
1. Do people who know this area think that I have a case? I mean whether this is a real claim, or whether I am overestimating something fairly minor that mostly healed within a fortnight.
2. If it is a real claim, how would I go about finding someone to act? I understand that CPR 26.9 allocates a personal injury claim to the small claims track where the damages for the injury itself are £1,500 or less, and that costs are generally not recoverable on that track, which I take to mean that no firm would act on a no-win, no-fee basis. Does the loss of enjoyment of the holiday count towards that £1,500, or is it treated separately? And if instructing a solicitor is realistic, is there a sensible way to find one who handles aviation claims, or is it simply a matter of searching and cold-calling?
I would be grateful for any steer, and I am happy to answer questions.