Passenger outraged by HNA’s compensation over tooth injuries

World
Europe

A male passenger, who suffered from a tooth injured caused by a metal ring in the in-flight meal on China's Hainan Airlines (HNA), was further outraged by the compensation from the company, which consisted of 200 yuan (31 US dollars) and a flight model.

The male passenger, Mr. Wang, told Yangtze Evening Post last Saturday that he received the reply from HNA on Wednesday and found the compensation to be “unacceptable.”

HNA passenger, Wang found a metal ring in his in-flight meal, leaving him with a tooth injury. /Yangtse Evening Post Photo

“That’s ridiculous! Why would I need a flight model? I will get even angrier every time I see the model,” Wang told Yangtze Evening Post, expressing his irritation over the compensation.

HNA told Wang that the metal ring he discovered in his meal was dropped from a spoon during the preparation process of the in-flight meal and a third-party company managing the process should take the responsibility.

Wang felt disappointed to the investigation results and said that the airline company should be the first one to blame.

Wang's boarding card. /Yangze Evening Post Photo

Concessions were made when Wang called HNA on Thursday. The company promised to compensate him another 2,000 yuan (315 US dollars) and pay for the cost of his medical treatment.

However, Wang refused the proposal and said that he wished to see a more sincere attitude from the company.

“I don’t ask for too much. I just hope the company could apologize to me and make a more reasonable compensation for my expenses in medical treatment, delay of work, transportation cost and mental damage,” Wang told Yangtze Evening Post, adding that the exact amount of money was still unknown since the treatment was still underway.

HNA posted an apology on its official Weibo account last Friday. /CGTN screenshot of Weibo

In response to this issue, HNA made an apology by posting a statement on its China’s Twitter-like Weibo account last Friday, saying that the investigation of this issue is underway and they promise to improve the supervision of the food supply in the future.

Wang took a flight from Nanchang, east China’s Jiangxi Province to Xianyang, northwestern Shannxi Province on April 25 when his tooth was injured by a metal ring in the noodles.

“At first I thought it was a small piece of bone, however, when I spat it out I found it was a thumb-sized metal ring, which caused my tooth bleeding,” said Wang.

Wang's medical examination showed that he got a loose tooth that required dental treatment./Yangze Evening Post Photo

A medical examination showed that Wang had a loose tooth that required dental treatment.

Since his injury, Wang has suffered from a lot of pain every day, which has greatly influenced his work and daily life.

Cai Qingtao, a lawyer from a Nanjing-based Zhongyin Law Firm, told Yangtze Evening Post that according to the regulation in Food Safety Law in China, consumers harmed by the food that didn’t meet the safety standards could ask for compensation from the operator as well as the manufacturer, and those who took the responsibility should pay for the compensations.

However, Cai added that the operator has the responsibility to compensate for the consumers in advance before they asked for compensation from the manufacturer. And consumers have the rights to ask for payment that worth ten times of the product price and three times of the loss.