Ryanair has agreed to pay £4,350 in compensation to a Hampshire woman who suffered burns from hot coffee during a flight to the Spanish island of Majorca.
Denise Elliott, a 63-year-old registered nurse residing in Southsea, received the out-of-court settlement from the budget airline following the incident aboard a service departing from Bournemouth.
The carrier’s legal representatives confirmed the airline does not accept responsibility for the injuries sustained by Ms Elliott.
She had been travelling with friends when the accident occurred, leaving her with scalding injuries that would require months of recovery.
Prior to the incident, cabin crew informed Ms Elliott the aircraft had exhausted its supply of protective lids for hot drinks.
After placing her coffee on the fold-down tray, the table shifted unexpectedly, causing the scalding liquid to spill 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 burns she sustained took eight months to fully heal.
Ms Elliott criticised the aircraft’s equipment, stating: “The unstable tables are not suitable for their purpose.”
She also expressed concern for more vulnerable passengers, saying: “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 flight attendants drew sharp criticism from Ms Elliott, who questioned their emergency training.
“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.
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“I was speechless. I thought the crew would have first aid training, but obviously they didn’t.”
When staff eventually provided a specialist gel treatment, Ms Elliott was prohibited from retaining it for subsequent applications, being told it had to be returned to the medical kit.
Her solicitor, Tracy Stansfield, warned this was not an isolated occurrence, noting numerous similar burn cases involving wobbly tray tables on flights in recent years.
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.”
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