Brussels, 25/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Mobile boarding stairs colliding with an aircraft does not constitute “extraordinary circumstances”. Consequently, a delay caused by this event cannot be grounds for exempting payment of compensation to passengers delayed by the airline in question.
On Thursday 20 November, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) reached this decision in the case involving Sandy Siewert against the Condor airline responsible for a flight from Antalya that arrived in Frankfurt six hours late (C-394/14, taken to the ECJ by the Amtsgericht Rüsselsheim (Local Court, Rüsselsheim, Germany). In terms of Regulation 261/2004 on air passenger rights (currently being revised), a delay of more than three hours should be compensated if the delay in question is the result of exceptional circumstances.
The Condor airline argued that the collision between the mobile stairs used for boarding and the aircraft that had occurred previously led to damages and the aircraft having to replace the stairs, which was therefore an example of exceptional circumstances.
The ECJ found against the airline and referred to a previous ruling (14 November 2013) in which it pointed out that technical problems cannot be considered as exceptional circumstances. In this specific case, such collisions can occur regularly because these mobile stairs are used to help passengers board or leave the plane. This event cannot therefore be considered as exceptional circumstances that are exempt to the payment of compensation to the passengers concerned for the delay they experienced. (MD)