A holiday maker said he is taking legal action against British Airways after he was “dripped on by a leak” for hours on a flight from London to Dubai.
John Nica, 40, claims staff left him with ‘rusty water’ dripping ‘directly onto his head’ from a leaky air conditioning unit for the last two hours of his eight-hour flight from London to Dubai on December 16. The account manager was jetting off to the city in the United Arab Emirates to celebrate his 40th birthday in the sunshine when the ‘absolutely awful’ experience occurred and ‘ruined the start of his trip’.
John, from Sheffield, South Yorks, says that he was left waiting for 40 minutes for a member of staff onboard the plane to come to his seat once he’d pressed the assistance button to inform them about the drip. Footage appears to show liquid dripping from the ceiling panels that are stained brown from water damage over the passenger’s head.
The account manager claims cabin crew then told him they were unable to move him to a different seat due to the flight being full, leaving him to sit under the leak for the remainder of his flight. British Airways apologised and said they had been in touch with the customer to ‘put things right’ – though John remains unsatisfied and pledges to take his complaint further.
John claimed he was dripped on for the last two hours of his flight
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Kennedy News and Media)
John said the experience “ruined the start of his trip” to Dubai
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Kennedy News and Media)
John claims he rejected the airline’s offer of £150 voucher and has now reported his case to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, and plans to take them to the small claims court if he is not successful with the CAA. John said: “About two hours before landing I was about to fall asleep and I felt something wet on my forehead.
“I thought maybe it was just the cold because it was very cold on the plane, but when I touched my forehead I could see water and I was like ‘OK, where is this water coming from? My partner noticed that it was coming from the air conditioning, so I pressed the [assistance] button for someone to come but no one came.
“It took about 40 minutes for someone to actually come. The flight attendant was like ‘oh my god yeah, we’re so sorry’ and they offered to bring some towels to wipe it up. They didn’t resolve the issue because it was still leaking. It was a full flight, so they couldn’t offer us another seat. We spent about two hours with that leak on top of us.
“They gave us blankets and stuff like that. Even with Ryanair I have never had an issue like that. It was absolutely awful. Really bad. It was dripping directly on to my head. We literally just had to sit and do nothing. They [British Airways] said were sorry about it but it doesn’t resolve anything.
John complained to British Airways on social media
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Kennedy News and Media)
“We literally just had to keep wiping ourselves. It was rusty water – it wasn’t just clear water, it had rust in it coming from the system or the vent, I don’t know.” John claims that there were a number of additional issues onboard the plane which he and his partner experienced – including running out of food, a faulty entertainment screen and no Wi-Fi.
John, who claims he was only given a sandwich and bag of pretzels to eat throughout the entirety his eight-hour flight, said: “They ran out of food and it was freezing cold in the cabin. I would say it was 14 degrees all flight. The Wi-Fi didn’t work for and we paid for it – I paid £14 for it and it didn’t work. The entertainment system didn’t work as well.
“They gave us a sandwich; they had enough stock. They gave us some pretzels. On the second time [they came down the plane] they ran out of food. I was really, really annoyed and really distressed because I was going to Dubai to celebrate my birthday and this wasn’t a very good start to the celebrations. It was a special trip for my 40th birthday and it ruined the start of my trip.”
John says he managed to enjoy the rest of his birthday trip in the sunshine. However he claims he encountered more problems whilst on his return flight with British Airways from Dubai to London on December 20.
He said: “The rest of the trip was alright, but we had return tickets with them [British Airways]. Again, on the way back it [the plane] was very cold and the entertainment system wasn’t working. The cabin crew suggested that I switch it on and off but it just wasn’t working.
“I had to sit doing nothing at all. All I could do was watch the videos that I took in Dubai, and the flight on the way home was even longer.” John says it was his first time flying with British Airways – and he hopes it will also be his last – as he prepares to take legal action against the airline after refusing their offer of a £150 voucher to use on his next flight with them.
His first steps have been to file a formal complaint with the airline and elevate it to the UK Civil Aviation Authority [CAA]. However he says he is prepared to take the to the small claims court if his case proves unsuccessful via the CAA.
John, who was visiting Dubai for the first time, said: “I filed a complaint on the online form, because to take legal action you need to formally complain about the issue first. I did that and they sent me an email saying that they were sorry and offered me a £150 voucher to use against my next flight with British Airways. But I never want to fly with them again that’s the problem.
“They are forcing you to use them so actually they’re not going to lose anything. What’s the compensation then when they’re forcing me to use the service again even though I don’t want to use them?” John says that he replied to the offer informing British Airways that he does not want to accept the voucher and is preparing to take legal action against them.
John said: “They don’t care. They think they’re a huge company and I’m a small individual so what’s going to happen? I just want compensation. They need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
“If they are not going to do anything, they’ll just get away with it and it will happen to other people. I just want to make sure other people don’t go through the same awful experience.” The CAA said they do not comment on individual cases.
A British Airways spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry for our customer’s experience and we’ve been in touch to make things right.”