A mum was left in tears on her British Airways business class flight when she claims a ‘faulty’ armrest ‘collapsed’ and crushed her hand – leaving her with a broken finger. Kate Hugh Smith had been flying home to Gatwick Airport after enjoying a family holiday in Barbados.
But 30 minutes into her journey, the 64-year-old claims the right armrest on her seat fell on her right hand and trapped her fingers for an agonising ‘minute or two’ while she struggled to free her digits. Kate said she was left in tears due to the excruciating pain but when she tried to alert an air stewardess about her injury claims she was ignored.
The retired banker said she then pressed her in-flight call button to try and get someone’s attention but again says no one came to help. It was only when the mum-of-three shouted out loudly to an air stewardess that she claims they alerted the manager who came to her assistance 20 minutes later.
While she was waiting for help, the British dressage judge said her husband Peter Hugh Smith was able to get her some ice to try and alleviate her swollen hand. Kate claims the BA manager admitted they were aware of the faulty seat but said there was nowhere else she could sit so had to remain in her broken chair for the duration of the journey.
Before landing, the passengers says a BA staff member took a photo of her hand and said the airline would be in touch about her injury but claims this didn’t happen. After reaching out to BA on various occasions since her flight on December 31st last year, she says she has still not received her incident report or any compensation for the incident three months later.
Kate, who is a Bronze BA member and flies regularly with the airline, says the company’s lack of response has left her feeling ‘dismissed’ and not ‘valued’ as a customer. Due to this, she now says she will find alternative airlines to fly with for her future holidays.
Kate, from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, said: “I was sitting in my chair and put my tray down. I wasn’t sitting straight so I moved in my seat and the next thing I know my right armrest collapses on my finger. I have never felt pain like it in my life. I had to really pull to get my hand out as it was trapped under the arm rest for a minute or two.
“It was unbelievable pain. I had silent tears running down my face. I called out to the stewardess. We were in business class so there were only about 16 other people in our part of the flight, but she just carried on doing her job.
“I wasn’t sitting next to my husband so I grabbed his attention and showed him my hand and it was already red. He got up and went to the stewardess and asked for some ice and told them that his wife had hurt herself.
“He came back and gave me a bag of ice but it was very small. I then pressed the call button on the plane to get an air hostess to come over and nothing.
“I was sitting in the chair and crying and nothing was happening. I was holding my hand up with the ice on it because I was in so much pain. At this point the call button had been on for over 20 minutes. I shouted out really loudly ‘excuse me’ and about six or seven other passengers looked around.
“Finally, a stewardess came over and I told her I had hurt my hand on the seat. She then went to get the manager and the manager came quite quickly. I explained what happened to them and said the plane seat was faulty and they looked at the arm rest that was stuck down and said ‘oh yes, it is faulty, what has happened?’.
“They got me more ice and said they would get me some painkillers but they didn’t have any Ibuprofen. They did offer me something else but I didn’t take them as my husband had some Ibuprofen.
“My hand had gone bright red and my hand was swollen and my ring finger was swollen and the fingers were starting to bruise and turn purple. I started to feel really anxious as I knew I was sitting in a faulty seat but there was nowhere else for me to move to and I had to stay in this seat for the duration of the flight.
“The BA staff took a photo of my hand as it was already purple and said they needed to write an incident report and said someone would be in touch [after the flight]. Because they said they would be in touch and because I’m a frequent BA flier I thought I’d wait for them to reach out.”
After landing back in England, Kate said she went to the Townsend Memorial Hospital who X-rayed her hand and confirmed she had fractured and broken her right ring finger. She then spent a month with her finger in a splint while it healed.
Kate, who was also on the flight with 24-year-old daughter Rose Hugh Smith, said: “It got in the way of everything. It hugely affected me. I had to hire someone to help me look after our horses as I couldn’t do anything with my right hand in a splint.”
Since returning from her family holiday, Kate says she waited for BA to reach out but when they didn’t, she made her first complaint on January 9th. After hearing nothing back, Kate says she then filled out the BA complaints form two more times online and finally received a case number but no response from the airline.
She then flagged her incident to BA staff on board a pre-booked flight to San Francisco on February 13th who she claims passed on her concerns. Kate said the airline’s premium escalation team made contact with her on March 5th and she was informed her complaint had been passed onto their legal team as well.
But after being told there was nothing they could do about her incident as it was a ‘personal injury’ they said she would receive her incident and chair assessment report within 30-days. Kate claims the 30-day period has now passed and she still hasn’t received any compensation for her injury.
Kate said: “I was a very loyal BA customer. The part that is very disappointing is that if the BA stewardess had shown more concern in the first place, I would be less bothered but she ignored me on the flight. It was only the manager who was nice when she realised what had happened to me.
“I’ve been made to feel like they don’t care and don’t value their customer. How loud do I have to shout before they do something? I feel completely dismissed as a customer and I expected more from BA.
“I was meant to be flying to Australia to visit family and I was going to fly BA but I’m not going to now.”
A British Airways spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry for our customer’s experience and have been in contact with them to apologise for the delay while our teams continue to assess their claim.”
Kate claimed on Tuesday that BA have since reached out to her to offer a settlement but she called it ‘ridiculous’.
