“Court Rules TAP Must Compensate Passengers After Co-Pilot’s Unexpected Death”

On July 17, 2019 at 6:05 am, a TAP Portugal plane was scheduled to depart from Stuttgart, Germany, to Lisbon. But at 4:15 that same morning, the flight’s co-pilot was found dead in his hotel room bed.

Unable to fly

Colleagues were shocked by this and the entire crew indicated that they were unable to fly so soon after. TAP Portugal canceled the flight and had a new crew fly over to Stuttgart. He flew back to Lisbon with the passengers at 4.40 pm.

A number of passengers turned to a company that requests refunds for delays, but TAP refused to pay because the unexpected death of the co-pilot would be an extraordinary circumstance that relieves the airline of the obligation to pay compensation. The case was then taken to court in Stuttgart, which asked the European Court of Justice to look into the case.

Personnel planning

Today the court ruled that personnel planning is part of the normal activities of an airline. “Unexpected absence due to illness or death of one or more employees whose presence is essential for the operation of the flight, even shortly before the flight’s departure, is therefore inextricably linked to the normal activities of an airline.”

Therefore, there can be no talk of extraordinary circumstances and so TAP Portugal is not exempt from the obligation to compensate passengers for the delay.

The court states that, ‘however tragic and final’, an unexpected death is legally no different from the illness of a crew member who is indispensable for the flight. The fact that the co-pilot had passed the full medical examination required to fly and nothing came of it, does not matter legally either, ‘since anyone, at any time, can unexpectedly become ill or die’.