A cabin crew member of Singapore Airlines has sued the airline for an alleged $1.2 million after an apparent slip and fall during a San Francisco International Airport (SFO)-Singapore Changi International Airport (SIN) flight, according to local media. Per reports by CNA, the case is ongoing and expected to continue today.
The Incident
The case involves an incident in which a crew member alleges that Singapore Airlines failed to provide a safe work environment in the galley of the A350-900 operating SFO-SIN on September 5th, 2019. According to the crew member, the airline ignored a grease patch and didn’t properly prevent the slip and fall accident during the flight to SIN.
The crew member, Deurairaj Santiran, told the court that he noticed the grease patch in the economy class galley of the Singapore Airlines A350 after cabin cleaners had prepared the aircraft for departure. Santiran allegedly notified his supervisor, who instructed the grease patch to be cleaned before departure. However, repeated attempts failed to resolve the patch, and Santiran alleges this is when the cabin crew was advised to work around it.
Deurairaj would eventually fall backward nearly two hours before landing on the 17-hour-long flight. While the injury didn’t generate headlines at the time, Deurairaj required a wheelchair to assist with deplaning. The $1.2 million Deurairaj seeks represents compensation for lost wages from missing work due to the injury. Deurairaj was a flight attendant at Singapore Airlines from 2016 to 2021.
Singapore Airlines and the law firm representing it in court were unable to respond to inquiries before publication. For its part, the airline operates two daily flights to SFO using the A350-900. The flight is the fourth-longest by distance in the Singapore Airlines route network. Singapore Airlines launched the service to SFO in 2018. The twice-daily service utilized both an all-premium and standard long-haul cabin configuration, which has 187 economy class seats. United Airlines also operates the route using both 787-9 and 777-300ER.
Flight attendant lawsuits
Unfortunately, cabin crew injuries are not new or unique to Singapore Airlines. Just yesterday in the United States, at least 16 occupants (both passengers and crew) of United Airlines flight 1890 between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Newark Liberty International (EWR) were injured when the flight encountered turbulence on landing. Closer to Singapore, on January 31st, two flight attendants were also injured on ANA flight 849 when that aircraft encountered turbulence.
Lawsuits with cabin crew and their airlines are not uncommon. In 2022, Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair settled a lawsuit from a cabin crew member who suffered a back injury on a hard landing. In that case, the cabin crew member claimed the seat was defective due to its worn-down state.
More recently, four American Airlines flight attendants were awarded damages after a court found that their uniforms were causing them to become ill. In that case, the uniforms provided by Twin Hill, which was named as the defendant in the lawsuit, were found to be laced with formaldehyde.