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Ryanair pays UK nurse €5,000 after coffee scalds her on flight to Spain
The Hampshire nurse was nurse left with severe burns after the incident during her Mallorca flight
A nurse from Hampshire has received nearly €5,000 in compensation from Ryanair after suffering burns from hot coffee on a flight to Mallorca, although the budget airline has refused to accept responsibility for her injuries.
Denise Elliott, 63, from Southsea, agreed to the out-of-court settlement following the incident on a flight from Bournemouth to the Spanish island. She had been travelling with friends when the accident happened, leaving her with scalding injuries that took eight months to heal.
Before the incident occurred, cabin crew told Ms Elliott that the aircraft had run out of protective lids for hot drinks. After she placed her coffee on the fold-down tray, the table shifted without warning and sent the scalding liquid spilling across her thighs.
"I put the cup on the table, but I don't know what happened after that as, the next thing I knew, the coffee was all over my thighs," she recounted.
The registered nurse criticised the aircraft's equipment and questioned whether flight attendants had received proper emergency training.
"The unstable tables are not suitable for their purpose," she stated.
Ms Elliott also raised concerns about what could happen to more vulnerable travellers.
"Luckily, I know about first aid, but imagine if I was a child or an elderly person? Who knows what might have happened?"
The response from cabin crew particularly troubled her.
"As a nurse, I knew I needed a cold compress, but it wasn't available and instead I was offered dry paper towels," she said. "I was speechless. I thought the crew would have first aid training, but obviously they didn't."
When the cabin crew eventually provided a specialist gel treatment, Ms Elliott was told she couldn't keep it for later use and had to return it to the medical kit.
Her solicitor, Tracy Stansfield, warned that similar incidents have become increasingly common.
She said: "Denise believed in the truth, and we were glad that she achieved a degree of closure for what happened on that flight, which is becoming an all-to-familiar story for holidaymakers."
Ms Stansfield added that numerous burn cases involving wobbly tray tables on flights have emerged in recent years.
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