Virgin Blue PAX rushed to hospital for burns after turbulence

[pauly7]

Ouch...!

A SYDNEY woman was hospitalised with burns after flying water from a coffee pot landed in her lap when her Christmas Eve flight hit turbulence.
Val Long was taken off her Virgin Blue flight by paramedics after landing at Sydney airport and was rushed to St George Hospital with serious burns to her legs and arm just after 2pm.

Val Long scalded by boiling coffee after Virgin Blue flight hits turbulence | Herald Sun

 

[2muchplastic]

That's pretty nasty, but could have been far worse. Over the head, in the eyes.....you've got to feel for her though.

 

[rwatts]

No doubt it was wake turbulence caused by a Qantas aircraft !

[Seriously though, very painful, and I dont think I would have been obeying the FA's command to stay seated while my clothing was saturated with near-boiling liquid.]

Richard.

 

[pauly7]

No doubt it was wake turbulence caused by a Qantas aircraft !

Richard.

That goes without saying right

Although I have noticed the media backing off QF a bit lately, no doubt a dropped cupcake by a FA will bring it all roaring back though...

 

[simongr]

Not fun at all - kind of justifies the CX policy of no hot liquids served during turbulence.

Interesting that this story took a week to break...

 

[pauly7]

Interesting that this story took a week to break...

Yes... Very... I'm sure if it was 'another' major carrier in Australia we would have had it on the 430, 5, 6 and 7PM news as a leading item with TT and ACA specials and a 60 minutes segment entitled 'xx_ Airline boils customer alive' as the story headline

 

[oz_mark]

Not fun at all - kind of justifies the CX policy of no hot liquids served during turbulence.

Interesting that this story took a week to break...

All well and good if you know you are in turbulence. Not so good if you suddenly hit unexpected turbulence.

(Never realised the coffee was so hot)

 

[2muchplastic]

(Never realised the coffee was so hot)

It always strikes me as being lukewarm at best, but if the lady in question ended up with blisters from the scalding, then it must have been very hot coffee.

 

[Mal]

It always strikes me as being lukewarm at best, but if the lady in question ended up with blisters from the scalding, then it must have been very hot coffee.

If she was front row, then potentially the coffee is a little hotter than lukewarm, but I am also quite suprised at the extent of the blisters incurred.

I don't really know what else the FA's in question could have done. When a plane is in a turbulence situation, then leaving your seat is pretty much out of the question due to the dangers involved.

 

[wallacej]

Does anyone else recall a thread speaking of such an incident that occured to a friend of one of the members on this site?

I thought I saw something about a week ago on here, but now can't seem to find it.

 

[Blackswan]

Interesting that this story took a week to break...

I'm guessing the Woman (and rightly so) was peeved that no one from Virgin had contacted her, so went to the media trying to get someone at Virgin to notice.

If it is the case that no one had contacted her, then its pretty poor service, no excuses.

 

[NYCguy]

... I dont think I would have been obeying the FA's command to stay seated while my clothing was saturated with near-boiling liquid...

NO F*CKING WAY! I would have been out of that seat and heading for a cold-tap as quickly as I could, physically pushing the crew aside if necessary. I think that the need for immediate cold-water first-aid treatment of a scald far outweighs the potential injury from turbulence, and if the crew don't know that, then they all need re-education.

I'd also sue. Definitely. If only for the "stay in your seat!" cough. Perhaps I've just spent too long living with litigious Americans, but I think the pax in question has a good case.

 

[SeaWolf]

NO F*CKING WAY! I would have been out of that seat and heading for a cold-tap as quickly as I could, physically pushing the crew aside if necessary. I think that the need for immediate cold-water first-aid treatment of a scald far outweighs the potential injury from turbulence, and if the crew don't know that, then they all need re-education.

I'd also sue. Definitely. If only for the "stay in your seat!" cough. Perhaps I've just spent too long living with litigious Americans, but I think the pax in question has a good case.

It might sound bizarre, but it comes down to legal reasons why she was told to stay in her seat. If you're in turbulence and the seat belt sign is on then the airline's insurance will only cover the passenger from injury etc. if they follow the instructions to remain in their seat with the seat belt on. If they ignore the instructions, get up and are injured the insurance company will simply tell them they failed to follow proper instructions and are on their own. They could try suing the airline and the insurance company, but I'm quite sure the insurance company would fight it all the way and would win as well.

All that aside, given how sharp and sudden it all was the first thing that probably went through the FA's mind was that QF incident with the plunging A330. She would have had no idea if that was it or if it was about to get severely worse. She would have had only a split second to make a decision on safety that could potentially result in very severe injuries if she got it wrong. She would have made the best call she could at the time with the information she had. She didn't really have any way of knowing how bad the burns were or if the turbulence was about to get much, much worse, so she decided to err on the side of keeping everyone where they were and went for the First Aid kit herself. It'd be a tough call in that situation when the pressure is on.

 

[pauly7]

I just had a thought, wouldn't the drink cart have cold water on it as well?!? Or maybe she stowed it then went for the first aid kit?

 

[comint]

If they ignore the instructions, get up and are injured the insurance company will simply tell them they failed to follow proper instructions ...

Of particular interest to this perspective, is how Virgin Blue uses its "seat belt signs". Unlike Qantas Group (although JQ is getting a bit slack) staff move around and start/continue service while the seat belt sign lit. So, there may be some argument that DJ uses the seat bet sign as "crowd control" rather than indicative of a potential problem (aka the Qantas Group approach).

 

[munitalP]

It might sound bizarre, but it comes down to legal reasons why she was told to stay in her seat. If you're in turbulence and the seat belt sign is on then the airline's insurance will only cover the passenger from injury etc. if they follow the instructions to remain in their seat with the seat belt on. If they ignore the instructions, get up and are injured the insurance company will simply tell them they failed to follow proper instructions and are on their own. They could try suing the airline and the insurance company, but I'm quite sure the insurance company would fight it all the way and would win as well.

All that aside, given how sharp and sudden it all was the first thing that probably went through the FA's mind was that QF incident with the plunging A330. She would have had no idea if that was it or if it was about to get severely worse. She would have had only a split second to make a decision on safety that could potentially result in very severe injuries if she got it wrong. She would have made the best call she could at the time with the information she had. She didn't really have any way of knowing how bad the burns were or if the turbulence was about to get much, much worse, so she decided to err on the side of keeping everyone where they were and went for the First Aid kit herself. It'd be a tough call in that situation when the pressure is on.

Theres a strong assumption here that the DJ FA was able to string a coherent thought together - multi task even.... "breathe in, breathe out..., breathe in, breathe out... plus coherent thought...." ahhhh... no way

I feel for the lady in question, once her pants were wet with scalding water, they stay "HOT" and just keep burning. I always thought that the pourers had flow limiting spouts - I would be interested in knowing how so much water managed to come out to cause the burn.

Mr!

 

[SeaWolf]

Theres a strong assumption here that the DJ FA was able to string a coherent thought together - multi task even.... "breathe in, breathe out..., breathe in, breathe out... plus coherent thought...." ahhhh... no way

Not really, I've been quite wordy, but I think all the FA would have thought was, "If she gets up and that happens again she could be killed." At that point she would have just fallen back on training. Having said that, you'd be surprised how many people just go 'cold' during emergencies and detach emotionally from what's happening around them and can make very fast and very calculating decisions under extraordinary pressure.

 

[codash1099]

If the seat belt sign was on because of turbulence, there was no justification for the FA to be serving hot drinks (or, for that matter, anything else).