An airline passenger who suffered permanent hearing loss caused by pressure changes during a flight has lost a claim dispute with his travel insurer.

The insured was flying from Melbourne to Newcastle in March 2022 when he sustained barotrauma – tissue damage – in his left ear. He said that in the following days he also suffered vertigo, which later improved, but his hearing remained affected and he developed tinnitus.  

In rejecting the man’s claim for cover, insurer Accident & Health International Underwriting said the injury did not result from an accident.  

Its corporate travel insurance policy defined an accident as a “sudden, external, unforeseeable and unexpected specific event which occurs at a definable time and place”.  

The insurer said the pressure changes were “neither unforeseeable nor unexpected, and therefore not an accident”.  

The claimant argued the “accident” was the failure of his ears to stabilise after the flight. He said it was relevant that his injury was accidental, rather than the events leading up to it.

But in a dispute ruling, an Australian Financial Complaints Authority ombudsman disagrees with the man’s analysis, noting: “There must be an accident which gives rise to the injury under the policy.  

“It will not suffice that the injury was accidental. Case law has established that it is necessary to distinguish between the bodily injury and the means by which it was caused. The injury resulted from pressure changes during a flight. While external, they are foreseeable and expected.”  

The authority says it is fair for the insurer to decline the claim.  

See the ruling here.