The Court of Appeal has dismissed a cabin crew member’s appeal over a refusal to order Aer Lingus to disclose pilots’ records and additional flight data in her personal injury action.
Lorraine Lawless says she was injured on 11 February 2011 when the aircraft on which she was working made a heavy landing at Dublin Airport. Her original claim focused on whether the jump seat provided for her work was inadequate to protect her from injury. Later particulars also alleged negligence in the way the aircraft was landed and raised concerns about pilot training and supervision. Those matters remain allegations; the appeal concerned discovery, not liability or damages.
The disputed requests sought pilots’ licences, flight hours, check dates and any restricted flying policy, as well as systems data covering 30 seconds before touchdown and 15 seconds after. Aer Lingus had agreed to provide other material, including the aircraft technical log, any captain’s special report or incident investigation report, and touchdown data. The High Court refused the disputed categories, and the Court of Appeal found no basis to disturb that decision.
The appeal judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Irvine on 29 July 2016, said the requested pilot records were not necessary or relevant to the issues framed by the pleadings. The central questions were whether the seat was inadequate and whether the force of the landing was negligent in the prevailing conditions. The court said the pilot’s qualifications would not determine whether the landing itself was acceptable.
The court also upheld refusal of data from before and after touchdown, reasoning that the alleged injury resulted from the aircraft’s impact with the runway and that how it was piloted either side of touchdown was immaterial to the issues to be tried.
Material disclosed during the appeal showed a touchdown G force of 1.6, below the 2.6 threshold described in the judgment for an aviation “heavy” or “hard” landing. No “load 15” report was generated, and there was no post-landing aircraft examination. The court noted that the High Court had not had this material when it ruled, but still concluded that the original decision was correct.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. It did not determine whether Lawless was injured, whether the seat was unsafe, or whether the landing was negligent. It also did not decide Aer Lingus’s arguments based on an agreement with the pilots’ association or EU Regulation 996/2010, as those issues were unnecessary to resolve the appeal.