The EU’s highest court decided on Thursday that a lightning strike on a plane might be considered an “extraordinary circumstance,” potentially exempting airlines from paying compensation for significant delays or cancellations.
An Austrian court brought the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, where a passenger sought compensation from Austrian Airlines.
The passenger experienced a delay of over seven hours traveling from Romania to Austria after the aircraft they were supposed to board was struck by lightning and needed replacement.
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Lightning “is an extraordinary circumstance that may exempt the airline from the obligation to compensate… if it results in mandatory safety checks,” the court stated in its ruling.
It is the responsibility of the Austrian court to determine if the airline took “all reasonable measures” to prevent the extraordinary circumstances.
In 2017, the court deemed a bird strike as an “extraordinary circumstance.”
