KUALA LUMPUR – A former Malaysian cabin crew member is seeking SG$1.7 million (RM5.9 million) in damages from Singapore Airlines after allegedly slipping on a grease patch and falling on board a carrier.
Today Online reported that 36-year-old Durairaj Santiran was working as a galley steward on an A350 aircraft during a roughly 17-hour flight from San Francisco to Singapore on September 5, 2019.
Durairaj claimed that he fell backwards while on the aircraft’s final leg of its journey, approximately two and a half hours from Singapore.
Durairaj is seeking a total of SG$1,775,662.49 in damages, the bulk of which is for loss of future earnings, after being diagnosed with a cervical disc prolapse.
The former air steward, who had been with Singapore Airlines from 2016 to 2021, appeared in court yesterday for the first day of the suit wearing a neck brace.
His claim is that the national carrier failed to provide a safe work system and a safe workplace by failing to adequately address the presence of the grease patch, causing the area to become unsafe.
“Had reasonable care been exercised, the grease patch would have been removed or such measures taken to prevent access to the unsafe location,” said Durairaj’s lawyers from East Asia Law Corporation in their opening statement.
“The employer could have prevented access to the location by placing a push cart over the area, for example.
“The fact that the defendant did not take any ‘preventive measures’ is indicative of the defendant’s negligence in that the work system was inadequate and the workplace was allowed to be unsafe,” they said.
Based on Durairaj’s version of events, he was patrolling the aircraft after cleaners had left when he noticed a grease patch on the floor of the economy-class galley near the ovens.
He informed a superior about the patch before the flight took off and was told to remove the grease patch with disinfectant cleaning spray and a paper hand towel. By then, the aircraft doors had closed, and recalling the cleaning crew would have caused a delay.
Durairaj then tried to remove the grease patch but could not do so and informed the same superior, who told him and the rest of the cabin crew to be careful of the patch.
After take-off and before the first meal service, the superior instructed the cabin crew to clean the grease patch again, but the effort was unsuccessful.
Towards the last leg of the flight, Durairaj was serving passengers when he slipped on the patch and fell hard on his back, hitting the back of his head on the floor, according to his lawyers.
The flight attendant was incapacitated and rested for the remainder of the flight before he was escorted out in a wheelchair at Changi Airport.
He had an MRI scan done on September 10, 2019 and was diagnosed with a cervical disc prolapse, or a slipped disc.
Singapore Airlines, represented by law firm Niru and Co LLC, argued that there was no grease patch and that if Durairaj slipped and fell, it was not on the grease patch.
If Durairaj had slipped and fallen from a grease patch, these did not cause the injuries, losses, and damages he claimed, and he had not offered evidence on what Singapore Airlines could have done to avoid liability, the lawyers said. – February 14, 2024