Delta Air Accused of Ignoring Passenger’s Agonizing Second-Degree Burns After Hot Water Spill Mid-Flight
- A Delta Air passenger is suing the carrier after she says scalding hot water spilled onto her lap during an international flight—leaving her with second-degree burns, permanent scarring, and a months-long recovery that prevented her from wearing her regular clothes or even showering. The victim claims flight attendants were dismissive of her injuries and failed to get her medical help.
A Delta Air Lines passenger claims she has been left permanently scarred and disfigured after she received second-degree burns from a cup of “excessively hot” water that a flight attendant placed on a slanted tray table.
Despite being left in agonizing pain, however, the passenger alleges that flight attendants onboard a long-haul flight from Detroit to Amsterdam dismissed her injuries and failed to get professional medical advice from specialists on the ground.
Following the August 19, 2024, incident, Kimberley Hickey was unable to shower or wear her regular clothing for months because of the excruciating pain, according to a lawsuit accusing Delta of negligence that was recently filed in a Michigan district court.
A civil complaint against the airline details how Kimberley was forced to buy her own burn dressings when she eventually arrived at her final destination in Tanzania many hours after she had been burned.
Flight attendants allegedly dismissed her horrific burn injuries
According to Kimberley, the incident happened aboard Delta flight DL134 from Detroit to Amsterdam. During the meal service, a flight attendant served Kimberley a cup of hot water and placed it on her slanted tray table.
The cup of water slid off the tray table and into Kimberley’s lap, causing agonizing bun injuries to her lower abdomen and thighs.
Rather than rushing to her aid, however, Kimberley says the flight attendants were dismissive and “extremely slow to respond.” As Kimberley was overcome with pain, she requested medical assistance, but her lawsuit alleges the flight attendants failed to make any effort to see if there was an off-duty medical professional onboard the plane who might be willing to assist.
Why didn’t flight attendants call a telemedicine service?
The other option available to the flight attendants was to contact a ground-based medical advice line via a satellite phone.
The vast majority of international carriers have subscriptions with telemedicine services like Medaire, a Phoenix-based company that offers emergency medical advice to various airlines so that flight attendants can be connected with an on-call physician 24 hours a day anywhere in the world.
Staff at Medaire know exactly what training flight attendants at different airlines have received and what medical supplies are in their emergency First Aid kits.
That allows them to provide bespoke advice based on the airline. In most cases, Medaire aims to provide advice that will help the pilots decide whether an emergency medical diversion is required or if flight attendants should call for help from an off-duty doctor or nurse on the plane.
Kimberley alleges that the flight attendants never contacted Medaire or an alternative telemedicine service, and when the flight arrived in Amsterdam, ground staff told her that burn injuries like hers “happen all the time.”
The passenger was referred to a specialist burns center after injuries started to blister
When Kimberley arrived back in the United States at the end of August 2024, she was immediately referred to a specialist burns center, where she was diagnosed with second and third-degree burns.
In addition to suing Delta for negligence, Kimberley has also filed a claim under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, which is a globally recognized treaty that makes airlines liable for injuries suffered by passengers during the course of an international flight.
Airlines don’t have many defenses under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, although they can avoid a payout if they are able to prove that the passenger’s injury was a result of their own negligence or conduct or that of another passenger.
Delta usually settles claims before they get to a jury trial
There is, however, not much case law when it comes to Article 17 claims, as airlines usually make out-of-court settlements.
Delta has, though, fought back against some claims filed under the Montreal Convention, including allegations made by passengers who claimed they were injured by passengers pushing drink carts into their legs.
Last August, Gail Hamilton of Pinellas, Florida, said she was injured when a flight attendant pushed a drinks cart into her knee “multiple times.” Despite initially fighting the lawsuit, Delta eventually reached an undisclosed out-of-court settlement with Hamilton.
The smart plan would have been to seek treatment in Amsterdam or even fly back to the United States. Continuing on the trip to Tanzania and staying there for the planned duration was not a good idea.
Exactly, Derek! I also think that there’s a lot more to the story than what is being reported in the media. Maybe the airline should have taken it all the way to a jury, especially since the passenger “overcome with pain” and yet waited until she got home to seek treatment. For the airline, the cost of settling is most likely cheaper than fighting the allegations. The comment in the article about the flight attendant bumping the passenger’s knee with a beverage cart could happen. There’s a narrow aisle, a heavy cart that barely fits in the aisle and a flight attendant trying to serve everyone at the same time. Who knows, there could have been unforeseen turbulence, too. The article also states that another incident the flight attendant pushed the cart into a passenger’s knee multiple times. One might think that if the knee was bumped the first time, the passenger would have pulled the knee in! If the tort system was changed to “looser pays”, maybe some of these frivolous lawsuits wouldn’t be filed in the first place.