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Aer Lingus sues passenger after duty-free alcohol falls from overhead locker onto woman’s head

Aer Lingus is seeking indemnity for the incident
Aer Lingus is seeking indemnity for the incident

An airline is suing a passenger after he allegedly opened an overhead locker and dislodged a bag of duty-free alcohol that dropped onto a female traveller’s head.

Aer Lingus is seeking indemnity for the incident, which resulted in the woman filing a lawsuit against the carrier.

Felicia Nelson, from North Carolina, started personal injury proceedings against Aer Lingus following the flight from Dublin to Hartford, Connecticut, in May 2018, reports the Herald.ie.

She claims to have suffered from vertigo, post-traumatic stress, head trauma, concussion, post-concussion syndrome, vision impairment, the aggravation of migraine headaches and a “bump or dent in the side of her head” since the incident.

Aer Lingus originally said it was contesting the case and claimed that the airline was not at fault, but has since filed its own “third-party complaint” against Connecticut resident Joseph Lorenzo, the passenger allegedly responsible for opening the locker.

The carrier is claiming that he “negligently, recklessly, or intentionally” removed his luggage with enough force to dislodge the duty-free bag, thereby making him, rather than Aer Lingus, liable for Ms Nelson’s alleged injuries.

Aer Lingus’s filing added that all cabin crew were in the galley area preparing for cabin service at the time of the incident.

Mr Lorenzo has not responded to the third-party complaint.

Aer Lingus declined to comment on the case when approached by The Independent.

It’s not the first time an airline has become embroiled in a lawsuit.

In August, The Independent reported that easyJet was being sued in Israel by a passenger who says she was twice asked to give up her seat because an ultra-Orthodox traveller would not sit next to a woman.

Melanie Wolfson, 38, who was born in Britain but now lives in Tel Aviv, is seeking 66,438 shekels (almost £15,000) in a suit filed by a reformist group, the Israel Religious Action Centre.

Ms Wolfson is also demanding that easyJet tells cabin crew they must not ask women to swap seats because of their gender.

She told The Independent: “It’s not legal under Israeli or UK law to discriminate against anyone in a public space according to their gender, so in this case easyJet broke the law.”

A spokesperson for the airline said: “At easyJet we take claims of this nature very seriously.

“Whilst it would be inappropriate to comment, as this matter is currently the subject of legal proceedings, we do not discriminate on any grounds.”

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