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Hello everyone! Looking for some advice on an EU261 claim that was denied due to lightning strike on the inbound aircraft (United Airlines).
Background: our flight from Rome to Chicago with United was completely cancelled due to what they deemed at the time a “technical” issue. Long story short, we were put on a bus, put up in a hotel, offered poor replacement flights that would get us back days later, and ended up taking a connection through Germany on Lufthansa to get home 1.5 days later (our original flight was nonstop, so definitely a downgrade). To be clear, the hotel and replacement flight was covered by United, however we were delayed by ~1.5 days, had to deal with a long layover/connection vs. a direct flight and had to arrange childcare on the fly for our children at home.
So we submit the EU261 claim to United….MONTHS later, we finally get a reply from United saying the reason the flight was cancelled was that the incoming plane was hit by lightning and this is an extraordinary circumstance and thus not covered by EU 261, thus while they covered the replacement flight/hotel, etc, they would not be paying the $600 Euro mandated by the EU legislation. Nothing about the lightning was mentioned during the event at the time and it just seems a little fishy to me that all of a sudden it falls under extraordinary circumstance and they’re avoiding payment of $600 euro for a large jumbo jet of 300+ passengers.
Do I have any recourse? Any advice on how to do better than the 10K measly points they offered to us as “goodwill”?
Even if I can’t get the EU261 comp, any recommendation on getting >10K points? I noticed that about a week later they gave people 30K points for weather issues (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/united-airlines-30000-miles-vouchers-canceled-flights-travel-delays/#:~:text=Customers%20who%20experienced%20overnight%20delays,U.S.%2C%20according%20to%20the%20airline.)
I think you have a legitimate claim.
Evans V Monarch 2016 – Monarch claimed lightning as extraordinary circumstances it was ruled that aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes which often occur and that such strikes are not extraordinary.
https://flightdelaypay.com/extraordinary-circumstances-explained/#
Not sure how you proceed since the flight was departing from Rome so I guess you have to make a claim via the Italian courts. No idea whether they have an equivalent of MCOL.
You may wish to just reposond on the basis of the above case and see what United say.
Also you were entitled to be re-routed to your destination at your earliest convenience and being delayed 1.5 days does not sound like United took all reasonable measures to get you to Chicago as quickly as possible. The trouble is that you should have told United at the time that their offered re-route was unacceptable.
As @AJA says this falls under EC261 not UK261 so you probably can’t litigate here, but it’s debatable. Unfortunately, the Monarch case cited doesn’t really help as it’s a lower court decision (in the County Court on appeal from a DJ) which is also considered quite controversial as is HHJ Clarke, notably re doorbells. The case also has no validity in the EU.
I don’t believe there is a specific CJEU decision, but many airlines rely upon Recital 14 re “meteorological conditions” in challenging these cases. If you feel you have reached the end of the road with United, you could write them a letter before claim stating that their story has evolved from a technical issue to a lightning strike which is inconsistent with the contemporaneous information provided to passengers, no evidence of such lightning strike has been provided and remind them that the burden of proof lies with them if they wish to posit an ‘extraordinary circumstances’ defence to avoid payment of compensation. Give them 14 days to respond (set an actual date and time about 14 days ahead allowing for receipt) failing which you will issue proceedings under the ESCP or at MCOL. In order to issue a claim with ESCP, you need an EU address – the UK is in the drop down list of countries, but you can no longer issue new claims. It’s complicated and may be risky at MCOL, so one might rather reluctantly have to use a claims company if your LBC doesn’t yield a positive response; AirHelp and flighrights.
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