One minute Richard Heiser was dozing comfortably on an American Airlines flight between Los Angeles and Washington. The next, he was unconscious on the floor with a concussion and several cracked teeth.

The culprit: a hard-sided briefcase that toppled onto him from the carry-on bin over his head.

Heiser, 47, the owner of a Bethesda-based publishing company, recovered and won a small court settlement after the September 1993 incident. But six years later, it is not a victory he relishes.

He is among an estimated 4,500 people injured on U.S. flights every year when laptop computers, baby strollers, crates of liquor, even bowling balls fall out of overhead bins.

"This happens way too often, and the airlines are turning a blind eye to it," Heiser said.

With air travel booming and many passengers choosing to tote bags instead of check them, the Federal Aviation Administration is being asked to set tough limits on the size and weight of carry-on items. Under current rules, each airline must have a carry-on policy, but the limits are at the airline's discretion, and enforcement varies.

Some safety consultants say the FAA also should set standards for the bins, requiring restraints that would keep objects from spilling out or prohibiting the bins from being opened mid-flight.

"No one airline wants to take a radical position on this because no one airline wants to upset the passengers," said Russell Robison of Injury Prevention Works, a passenger advocacy group. "The decisions are based on competition and marketing, not on the best interests of passengers."

Some airlines are equipping new planes with larger bins designed with a lip to help prevent spilling, according to the Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents the major U.S. carriers.

Others are limiting the number and size of carry-ons.

"The issue here really is the awareness of passengers," said Diana Cronan, the group's spokeswoman. On many planes, the crew announces two warnings about the danger of objects falling from bins. "We're trying to make passengers aware [that] this is happening."

Responding to two recent petitions for comprehensive safety standards, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said the agency is reviewing the matter and will decide soon whether to pursue it. The agency does not require airlines to report injuries from falling carry-ons, and it keeps no record of them.

Even the kitchen sink

Originally designed to hold coats, hats, blankets and other soft items, airline bins have become repositories for all manner of potentially dangerous objects.

"We always joked that people bring on everything but the kitchen sink, and then recently we learned about a passenger who actually brought on a hand-painted porcelain sink," said Candace Collander of the Association of Flight Attendants, which filed one of the FAA petitions.

"Passengers are bringing on more and more stuff, and it's getting bigger and bigger," she said.

Studies show that spills occur at all points of a trip: as passengers are loading the bins, rum- maging through them in mid-flight and grabbing bags on landing to depart.

Falls can also occur during turbulence when bin doors sometimes spring open.

Travelers who attempt to intercept falling items are often caught off-guard, safety analysts say. Bins are usually 5 feet wide and can release unwieldly surprises beyond the juggling ability of passengers.

Disabling accidents

The potential for harm when heavy objects don't stay put is undisputed. A 20-pound object falling 12 inches collides with 160 pounds of force. Numerous passengers, often in aisle seats, have been disabled by falling objects.

A registered nurse, struck by a heavy bag on a flight from Newark to San Francisco, underwent spinal surgery to repair one ruptured and two herniated cervical discs. The operation did not restore sufficient strength or physical sensation to let her return to her profession.

A physician flying into Dulles Airport was injured when a metal luggage carrier fell on her head. The resulting nerve damage caused a balance disorder, requiring long-term physical therapy and the use of a cane.

Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania was knocked unconscious by a falling attache case on a US Airways flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia five years ago. Her lawsuit is pending. Court records show that US Airways alone settled 1,000 injury claims due to falling items in a recent three-year period.

"The thing that irks me is this is preventable," said attorney Maurice Dunie, who won a six-figure settlement for a Maryland woman hurt by a falling luggage carrier in 1994. The passenger experienced memory problems and had to quit her job as a Justice Department lawyer, taking permanent disability.

European solution

Confronted with similar accidents a decade ago, several European airlines began outfitting their bins with restraint devices. Behind the bin door, a second, mesh-covered door with a separate latch is designed to catch items that may have shifted during flight. It permits passengers to push objects back into a safe position before opening the door.

The system is not foolproof, but it is credited with a 92 percent drop in injuries at British Airways.

"It's very simple, and it's been pretty successful," said Jonathan Braithwaite, the airline's project development engineer.

"We used to get quite a lot of reports of things falling out of lockers in the old days. The system requires a bit more maintenance, and it was very expensive at first because we have so many aircraft. But there's not really been a downside," he said.

The cost to install the Bridport Aviation Products system is about $25,000 per plane.

For American Airlines, with 648 planes, the system could cost $16.2 million.

The system has been tested in the United States, but the Air Transport Association said no airline is considering installing it.

"It is a very costly device, costly to purchase and expensive to install," said Cronan, the ATA's spokeswoman. "But the bottom line is, they're not effective." In the testing here, she said, when passengers noticed that items had shifted, they opened the netted doors and the items fell anyway.

"If there were sufficient incidents, the FAA would be requiring us to do it," said Todd Clay, Delta Air Lines general manager for corporate communications. "At this point they are not."

In a recent deposition, Margolies-Mezvinsky suggested that airlines take responsibility and fix the problem without being forced. "My feeling as a consumer is that there has to be some fairly easy way to protect passengers from that kind of accident."

More lawsuits may soon propel the issue forward.

Until recently, airlines were largely protected by the Airline Deregulation Act, which blocked personal injury claims of passengers hurt by luggage, beverage carts or other "hazards" on commercial flights.

But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled last November that passengers should be free to pursue damages, giving them powerful new leverage in court.

No change on horizon

Yet even the most steadfast advocates for change doubt that it will come easy or soon.

Gale Braden, an aviation safety consultant, compared the issue to the debate over whether to require children on planes to use safety seats.

"You can go on a plane, hold a child on your lap, and we have documented cases of children dying because they were not restrained safely," Braden said.

"With the bins, there would probably have to be five deaths a year to make it feasible for FAA to change the rule."

He is not aware of any deaths resulting from falling objects on planes.

"There's not enough blood yet to make a rule change," he said.

Pub Date: 7/04/99