PA MediaBritish Airways (BA) has been fined more than £3.2 million after two people in the baggage were seriously injured in Falls at Heathrow Airport.
The man was injured in a “nearly identical” incident at a West London airport, and uses a television house – a machine used to load luggage onto a plane – Southwark Crown Court heard.
Rabinder Tej was injured and cut his head in August 2022 when he fell to 1.5m (4 feet 11 inches), but Shajahan Malik suffered a bleed in the brain after falling 3m in March 2023.
The airline has previously pleaded guilty to two violations of safety regulations, following the prosecutor's case filed by the Health and Safety Administration (HSE).
PA MediaTeji handled packages for short flights, but Malik had loaded packages from a flight from Seattle, HSE Andrew McGee told the court.
Malik suffered a fracture to his forehead, nose and jaw, similar to a brain hemorrhage.
Judge Brendan Finucane KC said, “His jaw had to be closed. He had been eating liquids for several months. He had been taking medication for quite some time.
“He still suffers from ongoing pain and headaches from what happened to him.”
The TV family was not equipped with protections such as guardrails, the court heard.
Judge Finukan said he was “pleased that there was a high negligence in both cases,” fined £3,208,333 and ordered the airline to pay £20,935.
“Deep regret”
James Leonard KC told the court that for the BA, both men returned to work in different roles and “we did everything we could to promote it and ensure that relevant adjustments were made.”
After the hearing, HSE executive attorney Rebecca Schwartz said the man was lucky to be alive.
“The risks of working at height and the necessary control measures are well established. In these cases, proper guardrails would have significantly reduced the risk of harm,” she said.
A spokesman for the BA said, “Safety has always been our number one priority and we deeply regret that these incidents happened despite what we were introducing.”
