£4k payout after Ryanair coffee spill

A woman who was scalded by hot coffee on a Ryanair flight has been paid a £4,350 out-of-court settlement.

Denise Elliott, a 63-year-old nurse from Southsea in Hampshire, said she was informed that the plane had run out of protective cup lids before being injured on the flight from Bournemouth to Majorca.

She said: "Luckily, I know about first aid, but imagine if I was a child or an elderly person? Who knows what might have happened?"

Lawyers representing Elliot said Ryanair denied liability for the injuries and paid the settlement to their client before the matter reached court. The BBC has contacted Ryanair for comment.

Elliot said: "I put the cup on the table, but I don't know what happened after that as, the next thing I knew, the coffee was all over my thighs.

"I didn't knock it, otherwise it would have gone sideways and not into my lap."

Drawing on her knowledge as a nurse, Elliot wanted to treat her injuries with a wet cloth or ice pack, but felt the cabin crew showed a lack of engagement and experience.

The mother-of-one said she assumed staff on the plane would be first-aid trained but that "was not the case".

"I put my dress over my lap to help, but I needed something absorbent covered in cold water so I could douse the temperature out of it," she said.

"I asked them for a towel, or something like that, but they said they didn't have anything on board like that so I had to do my own first aid.

"When they did bring something, they first brought me some dry paper towels and I was lost for words."

She added: "After that they came back with some wipes, but it turned out they were surface wipes which, of course, contain alcohol.

"Eventually, somebody came up with a bottle of burn gel. We asked to keep it for a second application, but the steward said that wasn't possible and it had to go back into the first-aid kit.

"It was an absolute shocker."

Elliot, whose injuries took eight months to heal, said she was "really happy with the result" of her flight injury claim, but that it was "never about money".

Her lawyer Tracy Stansfield, who works for Hudgell Solicitors, said: "It's always a daunting prospect, taking on a superpower like Ryanair, but the corporate giants of this world are just as accountable for their actions as the rest of us."

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