Teenage Girl Left Sobbing in Pain After She Was Scalded With ‘Boiling Hot’ Coffee On British Airways Flight to Miami

A teenage girl who was flying back home to Puerto Rico after a trip to Africa where she provided community service in Nairobi was left with severe second-degree burns after a flight attendant on a British Airways flight knocked a cup of ‘boiling hot’ coffee in her lap.

The girl, who was just 14 years old at the time of the accident, was left screaming in pain and crying for much of the ten-hour flight from London Heathrow to Miami, according to a new lawsuit filed in a Puerto Rico district court.

Traveling with her grandmother back from Nairobi, the victim, who has not been named due to her age, first flew from Kenya to London and connected onto British Airways flight BA207 aboard an Airbus A380 superjumbo for the second leg of their long journey home.

Toward the end of the first meal service, a flight attendant asked whether the victim and her grandmother would like a cup of fresh coffee to finish their lunch.

According to the 14-page complaint, the flight attendant decided to place an empty cup on a tray that was directly above the victim’s lap and began pouring the coffee into the cup from a large coffee pot.

Thankfully, no liquid was spilled, but the flight attendant then offered a stir stick and packs of sugar to accompany the coffee. As the flight attendant placed the stir stick in the cup, she allegedly knocked the cup, and all of the coffee emptied onto the victim’s lap and knee.

The victim immediately started to scream and cry in pain, but the reaction of the flight attendant and her coworkers was “alarmingly inadequate,” as she initially left the scene only to return with some paper tissue to mop up the spilled coffee.

The lawsuit claims that the flight attendant failed to offer any First Aid, leaving the victim to feel “completely abandoned and disregarded” by the aircrew.

When her grandmother took the victim to the bathroom to assess her injuries, they discovered that the coffee had completely soaked through her thick joggers and had caused what one physician on the flight described as likely second-degree burns on her thigh and knee.

The doctor requested a First Aid kit to treat the victim’s wounds but was allegedly only provided with a small kit that contained a burn lotion not suited to dealing with such severe burns.

Later on, the victim’s grandmother showed a photo of the wounds to the flight attendant, who gasped in horror but then failed to take any meaningful action. Instead, the flight attendant fetched some chocolates and offered them to the victim.

For the remainder of the flight, the victim cried in pain but to their surprise, when they arrived in Miami, the airline had failed to have medical personnel waiting at the gate to assess her injuries.

Following the October 18, 2023, incident, the victim was left using a motorized scooter, and a trip to Disney World had to be canceled. Nearly two years later, the victim has been left with a ‘disfiguring scar’ from the burns.

The victim is making a claim under the Article 17 of the Montreal Convention which makes airlines liable for injuries suffered by passengers during the course of an international flight.

Ordinarily, Article 17 claims are capped at 128,821 Special Drawing Rights – an international asset created by the IMF that represents a basket of different currencies. At present, 128,821 SDR is worth around $180,000.

However, that cap can be exceeded, and the victim in this case is suing British Airways for more than $750,000.

Matt’s Take – The Danger of Hot Inflight Coffee is Well Known But Little Changes

In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile claims under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention from passengers left with bun injuries from hot drinks spilling on them.

In some cases, airlines have tried to fight these claims, arguing that the passenger was negligent, but the courts have generally sided with the victims.

In 2019, I wrote about how airlines might consider stopping the service of hot beverages altogether due to a European court ruling that found an airline responsible for a coffee burn even after the flight attendant had stopped handling the cup.

And in 2023, Stuart Harris from England urged airlines to start putting lids on coffee cups after he was left scalded with hot coffee during a Virgin Atlantic flight when the beverage tipped over during turbulence.

Virgin Atlantic initially tried to challenge the claim on the grounds that nothing unusual happened during the flight. The airline, however, eventually agreed to settle the claim after expert medical evidence was submitted.

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Do you think airlines should be held liable for coffee burns? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below…