British airways pays heavy price for safety lapses in employee injuries

Global airline giant British Airways has been fined over £3 million following two serious fall-from-height incidents involving employees.

In the first incident, on August 25, 2022, 54-year-old Ravinder Teji sustained severe back and head injuries, including fractured vertebrae, after falling 1.5 metres from a televator while unloading baggage.

A second incident occurred on March 8, 2023, when 43-year-old British Airways worker Shahjahan Malik sustained head injuries, including a fractured jaw and bleeding on the brain, while unloading baggage containers from an aircraft that had arrived from Seattle.

Both Mr Teji and Mr Malik required hospital treatment and were absent from work for several months as a result of their injuries.

An investigation conducted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed critical safety deficiencies common to both incidents. It found that gaps between the elevator's guardrails and the aircraft fuselage, varying with aircraft type, created a significant fall hazard. These gaps were exacerbated after platform extensions at Terminal 5 elevators were implemented without corresponding fall prevention measures. The investigation also identified that when the front of the elevator platforms were in use during the loading and unloading of some aircraft types, flaps on either side of the platform were left folded down, thereby creating a gap between the platform and the aircraft fuselage. Furthermore, it was found that the Televator’s operator platform had not always been fully extended towards the aircraft, introducing an additional fall hazard.

British Airways PLC pleaded guilty to two charges under Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £1.33 million for the August 2022 incident involving Ravinder Teji and £1.875 million for the March 2023 incident involving Shahjahan Malik. Additionally, British Airways PLC was ordered to pay costs of £20,935 at Southwark Crown Court on May 15, 2025.

HSE enforcement lawyer Rebecca Schwartz, who brought the prosecution, said: “Falls from height present a real risk of death or serious, life-changing injury. Both employees are fortunate to be alive today. “ The risks of working at height and the necessary control measures are well established; in these cases, adequate guardrails would have significantly reduced the risk of harm. This was a reasonably foreseeable risk that British Airways should have been aware of, and therefore it should have done more to protect its employees.”

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