A clipboard is not a bird: court grounds easyJet's "bird strike" defence

Birds fly and clipboards, usually, do not, which turned out to be the key point when easyJet told a UK court that a clipboard sucked into one of its engines was just like a bird strike. The judge wasn't convinced and awarded £350 (approx. €400) each to our two passengers, whose Liverpool to Faro flight landed more than three hours late.

On 25 June 2023, two passengers boarded U2 3423, an easyJet Liverpool to Faro flight leaving from John Lennon Airport, with the Algarve sunshine on their minds, only to land 3 hours and 21 minutes late. The culprit wasn't the weather, a strike or a technical fault but a simple clipboard, and the question of whether it entitled them to receive flight delay compensation from easyJet ended up in front of a judge.

The clipboard that took flight

Before departure, a clipboard was left on one of the aircraft's engines, and just as you would expect, the jet engine effectively sucked it in. To make sure everything was in order, the aircraft then had to be inspected before it could take off. And although thankfully no damage was found, by the time the plane finally left the delay had increased well past the three-hour mark that entitles passengers to compensation.

easyJet's defence: "it's basically a bird strike"

The unusual part is the argument used by easyJet’s lawyer. He said he had never heard of a clipboard getting sucked in a jet engine, trying to highlight the exceptional nature of the incident. However, he also went on to say that clipboards are just as common in airports as birds, as if the two things were connected.

But why did the lawyer feel the need to put a clipboard on the same level as a bird? Well, under the UK261 regulation, airlines don't owe compensation for a flight delay caused by extraordinary circumstances that couldn't have been avoided, and bird strikes are the classic example, as the EU Court of Justice confirmed in Pešková v Travel Service (C-315/15). This means that proving that a clipboard belongs to the same family as birds would have really helped easyJet's case, even if the comparison was, admittedly, a stretch.

Spot the difference

Despite the near-rhyming names, we didn’t find clipboards to be that similar to birds, and the difference isn't hard to spot: birds fly and can genuinely end up in a plane's path by mistake, whereas a clipboard, last time we checked, has no wings, no sense of adventure and a strong tendency to stay exactly where someone put it down. The issue wasn't an act of nature but a sign that the aircraft was not properly checked before departure.

The judge agreed, comparing it to a mechanic leaving a spanner inside an engine rather than to anything resembling a bird strike, and noting that whoever leaves a clipboard there is responsible for their actions.

easyJet then tried another route, arguing that the dispatcher who left the clipboard wasn't an easyJet employee and so wasn't under the airline's control. However, no evidence was put forward to back this up, and since in a consumer case it's up to the airline to prove its defence, the argument never really got off the ground.

The good news for the passengers

On 16 September 2026, the County Court at Luton ruled that extraordinary circumstances had not been proven and ordered easyJet to pay each passenger £350 (approx. €400).

The passengers had first claimed their easyJet delay compensation through Flight-Delayed.com in August 2023, about six weeks after their flight, and when easyJet did not pay, our UK legal team took the case to court. The compensation has now been paid in full. Two passengers, one ruling: you could say we killed two birds with one stone, or rather one clipboard.

What this means for your easyJet flight delay compensation

• "Extraordinary circumstances" is not a wildcard airlines can use whenever: whether you're chasing easyJet compensation or compensation from any other airline for a cancelled or delayed flight, the same rule still applies. It's the airline that has to prove extraordinary circumstances, and neither stray stationery nor mistakes by the people preparing the aircraft will generally qualify.
• You may be owed more than you think: under UK261, compensation for a 3-hour delay doesn't depend on what you paid for the ticket, only on the distance: £220 per passenger for flights under 1,500 km, £350 for flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km such as Liverpool to Faro, and up to £520 for longer flights.
• Older flights still count: the flight delay compensation time limit in England and Wales is six years, and these passengers, who flew in 2023 and won in 2026, show that patience pays off, especially when an airline's excuse is as creative as this one.

Was your flight delayed, cancelled or overbooked, whether because of stray clipboards, forgotten spanners or anything in between? Check your flight on Flight Delayed UK to see if you are owed compensation on a no win, no fee basis.