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A passenger on budget airline Ryanair was awarded over $30,000 in damages after she fell on 'narrow and steep' plane steps and broke her leg in 2 places

Passengers PAX boarding on a Ryanair FR airplane, the largest low cost budget airline in the Europe at Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport SKG LGTS in Greece. The exterior of a Boeing 737-800 aircraft with registration EI-EBM is seen before the flight on the tarmac.
Passengers boarding a Ryanair Boeing 737-800.

Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images

  • A Ryanair passenger fell down the aircraft steps while disembarking and broke her leg, per El Periódico.
  • The budget airline has been ordered to pay her $33,000 in compensation.
  • The judge's decision said the plane staircase "was especially narrow and steep."

Ryanair has been ordered to pay a passenger $33,000 after she broke her leg in two places while deplaning, El Periódico reported Wednesday.

The unnamed woman had flown with the Irish budget airline from Seville to Alicante in Spain to meet her newborn grandson back in February 2020, per El Periódico.

But she fell while exiting the aircraft, rolling all the way down the staircase from the second step, before being taken to hospital for surgery having broken her tibia and fibula, according to the Spanish newspaper.

Local outlet Diario de Seville reported that the woman was holding the staircase handrail and carrying luggage when she suffered the "horrendous fall."

Ryanair's fleet is almost entirely made up of Boeing 737s, and the airline uses integrated staircases that fold out from underneath the exits. That allows for the budget airline to save on airport fees for jet bridges or stair cars.

But the judge at the Commercial Court of Seville said the Ryanair plane's staircase "was especially narrow and steep," per El Periódico.

The woman, who was hospitalized for three days and had two surgeries, requested 31,230 euros ($33,595) in the lawsuit — although she received slightly less than that because compensation for accommodation and pharmacy expenses was rejected, Europa Press reported.

Her claim was based on the Montreal Convention which stipulates that airlines are liable for any passenger injuries onboard an aircraft, or while boarding or deplaning, unless they can prove the passenger was negligent.

Ryanair did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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