A flight attendant who was unable to do her dream job after breaking her leg in seven places during severe turbulence has won a six-figure payout. Eden Garrity, 31, was pushing a trolley when the Thomas Cook flight from Cuba to Manchester entered a violent Atlantic hail storm.
A blast of turbulence sent the flight 500 feet up, pinning Eden to the ground and breaking her ankle. Eden was unable to walk at all for two months after the incident and underwent numerous surgeries and intensive rehabilitation.
She was left with nerve damage that makes it painful for her to stand up for long periods of time, meaning she can never return to work as a flight attendant. And while the paycheck was a huge financial help for her, Eden says it doesn’t make up for the fact that she’ll never be able to do her dream job again.
She said: “I’m bitter, I’m sorry. It’s just frustrating. It was the best job in the world and I feel like I lost a piece of my personality. You see people you’re friends with and they travel in the sky and I don’t, I’m grounded forever. I will never be able to fly to work again.
“I feel lost, I have a family and a son and it’s great, but I’m very limited in what I can do. I miss making memories, seeing different countries. If it wasn’t for that accident, I could fly in the future and it’s horrible.
“I appreciate the paychecks, but they don’t give me back what I’ve lost. It helps me get my own property, but I’m 31 and I have the rest of my life ahead of me and I can’t do what I want to do.”
Eden, from Leigh, was left lying on the floor of the plane for an hour while seats were cleared after the flight was hit by turbulence. She was laid across the back row of the plane in agony and eventually rushed to hospital as soon as they landed in Manchester – seven hours later.
Doctors said the impact on the floor of the plane was ‘like a sledgehammer’ that hit her in the leg. She broke her fibula in five places, her tibia once, broke the side of her foot and broke her ankle.
Eden needed surgery to put screws and metal plates in her leg, as well as a huge external metal brace, and was unable to walk for two months. The aircraft took a detour of about 100 miles to avoid adverse weather conditions while crossing the Atlantic in August 2019.
But Eden says she and other crew members were not aware of the risk of turbulence either during the trip or at the pre-flight staff briefing. She said: “If we’re going to have any turbulence on board, they’ll usually tell us before the flight and let us know what the plans are.”
“For example, they might say ‘we’re going to fasten your seat belts’ or ‘we’re not going to let you go’. The doctor said it was like a sledgehammer hitting my foot.”
“Six passengers picked me up and put me in three seats in the back of the plane and an ambulance was waiting for me at the airport. I wasn’t one of those people who always knew what they wanted to be when they grew up.” up.
“I wasn’t particularly academic and I didn’t go to university, but when I got the opportunity to become a flight attendant I felt like I had found my path in life. I absolutely loved my job and I knew I had found my calling so to speak .
“So to suffer injuries that were so severe that I literally couldn’t come back after the incident was absolutely heartbreaking. I suffered from depression and was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety.”
Describing the incident shortly after it happened in 2020, Eden said the pilot asked crew members to sit down five seconds before the plane hit the storm. But Eden did not have time to secure the cart and sit down before the strong turbulence.
The 27-year-old was suddenly pinned to the ground. Eden said at the time: “We hit a massive hail storm. The pilot told me afterward that it went black around him. It was by far the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced as a crew member or passenger.”
“It was absolutely terrifying. The plane shot up 500 feet in seconds. The force of the turbulence pinned me to the ground and forced me to the floor.
“My legs were pinned to the ground and my ankle was completely broken. I didn’t realize what had happened until I tried to take a step and collapsed. My ankle was at a right angle and I started screaming. The bottom of my leg was pointing to the side.
“My body was in shock and I started to panic. Eden was on the floor for an hour as the seats cleared around her.
It was mid-flight when the ‘excruciating pain’ set in. She added: “The pain started when they took my shoes off and put a splint on me.”
Eden was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital as soon as Thomas Cook’s plane from Cuba landed in Manchester. The AAIB accident report states that the aircraft experienced “unexpected severe turbulence” lasting 90 seconds.
“The aircraft encountered severe turbulence which resulted in autopilot disengagement at 500 feet altitude,” it said. “It was accompanied by the sound of hail hitting the nose of the plane.
Eden spent nine days in hospital.
Lawyers from Thompson Solicitors argued that the staff should have been informed that the flight was going to have bad flying weather and that additional measures should have been put in place. While insurers Thomas Cook denied liability for her injuries, Eden received an undisclosed six-figure compensation care package.
Injury law expert Neil Richards, who represented Eden, said: “The circumstances of the incident in which Miss Garrity was injured should have been foreseen. The issue of flight safety, particularly when working in certain geographical areas including the Caribbean, carries a known health and safety risk.
“Turbulence also presents an obvious and serious danger to all persons on board, and in particular to airline personnel who must work in and around the cabin in such an environment.”
Unite legal director Stephen Pinder said: “I am delighted with the outcome for our member and his family. Unite will take the lessons learned during this case back into our industry work to help ensure other airline workers are protected from similar incidents.”