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American tourist settles with Qantas over screaming child

67-year-old blames airline for permanent hearing loss

by macleans.ca on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 2:27pm - 0 Comments

An American tourist was on her dream holiday down-under when a three-year-old boy on a flight from Alice Springs to Darwin screamed in her face. Jean Barnard, 67, says that her eardrum was ruptured resulting in loss
of hearing and it was the flight crew’s fault for not stopping the child. Barnard’s lawyer accused Qantas Airlines of “failure to take all the necessary precautions to prevent the accident.” Lawyers for Qantas argued that there was no way flight attendants could predict the child was about to scream and therefore no way for them to prevent the injury. The parties came to a confidential settlement this week.

New Zealand Herald

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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_D_world M_A_D_world

    While if correct in the fact that her ear drum ruptured than she has likely suffered a degree of hearing loss because of it.
    However unless the child had been working up a tantrum there was likely little warning for the flight attendants that something was amiss.
    There have been a few flights where it would have been nice if the parents had been prepared for the possibility that their child is not a comfortable air passenger.

  • Daz

    Americans answer to everything, get a lawyer and sue

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

    Nothing worse than being stuck on a plane near a screaming kid. Well there's one thing worse. If it's your kid.

  • execva

    If a 3yo screaming in her face can rupture her eardrum then Qantas didn't get enough medical evidence to support the fact she must have had some sort of problem with her ears in the first place. Qantas should've fought it harder. Clearly they make too much profit. :)

  • fuddle duddle

    to win the lawsuit they have to show that there was forseeable harm, little monsters can get quite loud but i am not sure what they could have done ..if this is a precedent others would like to cash in too

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