25 JUL 2019: It was only a matter of time: Sooner or later the farcical airline overhead bin wars had to result in some collateral damage. Sure enough, last week a woman passenger filed a claim that she’d suffered a concussion after being struck on the head when a fellow WestJet passenger failed to successfully cram her luggage into the bin over the victim’s head.

Shaia Lynn Ellen Bredeson (yes, that is just one person) is suing WestJet in B.C. Supreme Court for damages she claims to have suffered way back in November 2017 after boarding an Edmonton-bound flight in Vancouver. Clearly the blow to the head was sufficiently serious for the poor woman to take almost two years to remember what happened.

The injured party claims she was seated when, “luggage fell from the overhead bin” and struck her on the head. She further claims that WestJet, “failed to take adequate steps to ensure that luggage in the overhead bins did not constitute a hazard.”

But, by both definitions of the word ‘hazard’ carry-on bags do most assuredly constitute a problem. As with Ms. Bredeson’s gravity-induced incident they represent a ‘danger’ and for every other emplaning and deplaning passenger they’re an ‘obstacle’ – a very annoying one that clogs aisles and frequently – as I witnessed just last week – generates unpleasant passenger confrontations.

While laboriously boarding one of Canada’s big two, a passenger just ahead of me looked around angrily and while half-pulling a small duffle out of the bin above his assigned seat, shouted, “Whose bag is this?”

When nobody claimed ownership he pulled it out, dropped it in the aisle and proceeded to squeeze his large wheelie into the newly vacated bin space. Only at this point did the AirPod-wearing guy in the window seat scream, “Hey that’s my bag! What the (bleep) are you doing?” By this stage a flight attendant had managed to “scuse me, scuse me” her way to the scene of the crime and took charge by, in no uncertain terms, instructing Mr. AirPod that his small bag would have to go under the seat in front of him. He begrudgingly complied but it was a disturbing and needless confrontation that cabin crews probably see play out on almost every flight.

I know I have written about this before but Air Canada and WestJet have got to figure out who’s going to be the first to step up to the plate and start charging for carry-on bags.

This ubiquitous charade of looking for volunteers to gate-check their bags ‘for free’ makes an even bigger farce of the issue. They need to accept that by charging for checked bags only, they have created a very effective $30 incentive to try and carry everything on board. They were very quick to follow each other when it came to charging for checked bags and again last year when they both upped the price from $25 to $30 on the same day. Maybe a carry on fee would apply to only the discounted fare buckets but one way or the other they really need to take some action.

From an operational cost perspective it also has to make sense. Southwest famously turns their airplanes in 20 minutes. On AC it frequently takes almost that long to just get everyone off the plane! Cabin crews have clearly had enough. They turn a blind eye when the guy in row 36 unashamedly sticks his bag in the open bin above row six. And the little old lady with the 30 lb. carry-on, well she’s on her own. When she brings the boarding process to a grinding halt as she stands in the aisle looking helplessly around with a well practiced, “What do I do now?” look, it invariably falls to another passenger to play Samaritan. The cabin crew likely has it covered in their Collective Bargaining Agreements that they don’t have to render such potentially backbreaking assistance.

So, nobody knows what Shaia Lynn Ellen’s Supreme Court case might precipitate but, with some luck, it might knock some sense into WestJet’s head (pun intended) that the current system is broken.

As the best landing announcement I’ve ever heard went, “Please be careful when opening the overhead bins… because shift happens” well, it’s time to see some shifting of the gears with carry-on policies. Flair charges $5 less to check a bag than to carry it on board and, as a clear-cut result, only about 20% of passengers bring anything other than a small hand bag into the cabin: It works!

I rest my case – underneath the seat in front of me of course.