Flyer falls off stairs while leaving plane, breaks leg. Airline to pay Rs 27 lakh as compensation

The woman fell while exiting the aircraft and rolled all the way down the staircase from the second step, as per media reports. (Representational image)

A budget airliner has been ordered to pay $33,000 (about Rs 27 lakh) after a passenger fell off the stairs while stepping off the plane and broke her leg in two places.

The woman, who has not been named, was using Ryanair, an Irish ultra-low-cost carrier while travelling from Seville to Alicante in Spain to meet her newborn grandson in February 2020 when the incident happened, El Periódico reported. The airline's fleet is almost entirely made up of Boeing 737s, and to save on operating costs by not using jet bridges or stair cars, it uses integrated staircases that fold out from underneath the exits.

According to the Spanish newspaper, the woman fell while exiting the aircraft and rolled all the way down the staircase from the second step.

She was then rushed to a hospital for surgery. As per media reports, the woman was attempting to climb down the stairs with her luggage in one hand while holding the staircase handrail with the other hand when she suffered the "horrendous fall."

The woman was hospitalised for three days and had two surgeries. She then filed a suit against the airline and asked for $33,595 in compensation.

Local newspapers reported that the judge at the Commercial Court of Seville noted that the Ryanair aircraft's staircase "was especially narrow and steep" and ordered the airline to pay the woman $33,000 in compensation.

In a related incident, another Ryanair unlucky passenger who was late for his flight fell onto the runway while trying to climb a detached air bridge in June. The man was trying to make his way to a Ryanair flight that was flying to Fez in Morocco from Spain's Malaga, Times Now reported.

Running late, the man hurried from the boarding gate only to find the air bridge had been detached from the plane. He tried to climb it but eventually fell on the tarmac. he got up almost immediately suggesting that he was not hurt.

Read more: Passenger threatens to call cops over flight attendant's finger-pointing. What happened next