A JetBlue passenger from New York is suing the airline for bodily injury during a transatlantic flight to Paris after a flight attendant allegedly gave her a pack of ‘dry ice’ to help treat her swollen leg… Instead, the dry ice burnt her skin and left her with excruciating tissue damage.
Dry ice has long been used in the airline industry to keep food and other catering supplies cold during transit. Made from carbon dioxide in the process known as sublimation, dry ice is supplied to the airline industry in small plastic packs that are placed within special inserts within a food cart.
Chilled to temperatures of between -78.5°C and -109.3°F, dry ice is much colder than regular ice and, if applied directly to the skin, can cause frostbite almost instantaneously.
As a result, handling dry ice requires special precautions like wearing thermally insulated gloves to prevent serious burn-like injuries.
According to the recently filed lawsuit, Patricia Matzenbacher was flying with JetBlue on flight 1908 from New York JFK to Paris on March 31, 2025, when she asked the flight attendants for an ice pack because her leg was swollen.
While regular ice, properly wrapped up, is a great way to treat inflammation and swelling, dry ice is most definitely not.
The flight attendants offered to help and allegedly handed over a dry ice pack without warning Patricia what was inside. Patricia thought the nondescript pack was a regular ice pack and applied it directly to her swollen leg, which almost immediately caused burns and tissue damage.
As this was an international flight, Patricia is making a claim under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, which makes airlines liable for injuries sustained by passengers during the course of the flight.
Passengers are generally able to claim up to 151,880 Special Drawing Rights under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention.
Special Drawing Rights represent a basket of different currencies, and the conversion fluctuates just like normal currencies. 151,880 SDRs is currently worth around US $215,802.
However, if a passenger’s injury or death is due to the negligence or wrongful act of the airline, then this cap doesn’t apply. Patricia claims that her injuries were due to the negligent actions of JetBlue through its flight attendants, which means that she could be able to make an uncapped claim against the airline.
Matt’s take – A well-intentioned act that went very wrong
No doubt, the flight attendants involved in this alleged incident were well-intentioned when they provided the dry ice to Patricia, but they couldn’t have gotten this more wrong if they tried.
Dry ice is inherently dangerous and should not be used for First Aid purposes. Some airlines do provide single-use ice packs, but these are pretty rare, and most carriers rely on regular ice to treat strains and sprains.
