Responsibility of the airline

How much can you really hold an airline accountable? I came across an article about a woman by the name of Jewel Thomas who was actually suing American Airlines for overshooting a runway at O’Hare. Apparently the plane was experiencing electrical issues and had to land in an emergency. This article explains how Thomas claims that the airplane overshooting the runway is the reason why she is afraid to fly in an airplane and that she was “traumatized” from the experience. Her argument includes that they should have landed the plane sooner than she did. Because this article made me curious, I took the liberty in researching the liabilities involved with airlines.

Liabilities Concerning Baggage:

If an airline damages or loses your baggage, the liability does NOT depend on the value of the objects in your bag but by the bag’s weight. So if you are going to pack something that is extremely valuable to you, I would suggest packing it by taking into consideration of what could happen to it. Use bubble wrap, extra padding, ect.

Physical Injury of Death to a Passenger:

The liability concerning death or injury actually varies within different airlines and places. In a list of airline liabilities provided by the Citizen Information Board, they said that “[the liability limit] can be as low as 19,000 euro.” That is the equivalent of $26,601.90 which is, in my opinion, not a very good compensation when you consider a death of a loved one.

But as I looked through these articles most of them mentioned only physical injury to a passenger rather than mental or emotional damage. In a way, this made sense to me because it’s obviously easier to measure a physical injury rather than an emotional one. But does that mean it’s not as important? When limiting my search, I found that airlines aren’t liable for emotional distress especially when not caused by a physical injury. Is this fair?

In Jewel Thomas’s case, I believe that searching for compensation for something that was out of the airline’s control was a big reach. Her emotional distress should not be the fault of the airlines, especially when they were trying to land the plane in case of something even worse happening. I feel that American Airlines were just trying to do the best that they could in a bad situation.