Sky View
Insights and opinions on the industry’s hottest topics
By Jonathan Hinkles, 30-year UK airline executive
The early morning TAP Air Portugal flight from Stuttgart to Lisbon on July 17, 2019, was shaping up just like many other routine flights across Europe that day. Its crew had arrived at the German city on the previous day and rested before their early start; the aircraft had landed the night before.
Yet, as the crew gathered in the hotel reception to head to the airport, something was amiss: the first officer hadn’t joined his crew downstairs. Unable to contact him, the shocking discovery soon dawned on the hotel and his fellow crew members. He’d passed away during the night.
You and I might think this to be an extraordinary set of circumstances, but the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled otherwise when passengers on that flight sought compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004. The ECJ decided TAP’s flight cancellation didn’t meet the threshold for “extraordinary circumstances”, despite a situation that most of us will thankfully never face in our entire aviation careers. The law truly is an ass!