Flight cancellation due to an unexpected technical problem

In the case of flight cancellations, as per Regulation No. 261/2004/EC, the airline must take care of passengers and pay compensation, the amount of which depends on the length of the flight. If a flight is cancelled due to an emergency which could not have been avoided, even if all suitable measures had been taken, passengers are not entitled to compensation.

Such conditions may arise especially in the event of political instability, poor weather conditions, security risks, unforeseen deficiencies that may affect the safety of the flight, as well as strikes, which affect the operation of airlines.

A passenger who had a booked flight with the KLM airline to fly from Ecuador to the Netherlands arrived in Amsterdam with a 29-hour delay. According to the airline, the delay had been caused by an unexpected technical problem in the engine. The passenger did not agree with the explanation provided by the airline and thus filed a lawsuit.

In preliminary rulings, the EU Court decided that conditions that occur in the case of technical problem may be defined as an "emergency" only if they refer to events which are inseparably related to the normal execution of activities of the respective airline and that the latter could not actually have affected such event due its characteristics or origin. Since technical problems are unavoidable in the operation of aircraft, airlines usually encounter such problems when carrying out their activities. In this regard, technical problems detected during routine maintenance of an aircraft or caused due to insufficient maintenance cannot be deemed "emergency situations" as per Regulation 261/2004/EC.
In its judgement, the court defined technical problem that may nevertheless fall under the category of emergency situations. These are a consequence of a hidden defect that occurred during the construction or due to damages on the aircraft caused by the sabotage or terrorist acts.

In its judgement, the court emphasised the main purpose of Regulation 261/2004/EC, i.e. to provide a high level of passenger safety, and the duty of the narrow interpretation of the provision on emergency situations that the airline could not justify its potential refusal to pay compensation for damage to passengers who suffered great inconvenience by referring to the existence of "an emergency situation" for this purpose.

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