INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW impinge on flight safety is capable of constituting an act of a third party which affects the carrier’s air activity and, therefore, of constituting an event of external origin but in this case where such notification was made prior to the delayed flight in question. In April 2018, the manufacturer of the engine fitted to the aircraft scheduled to operate that flight had sent that carrier an instruction and a report which disclosed the existence of a hidden design defect affecting the high pressure compressor blades of engines fitted to aircraft of the same model and imposed a number of restrictions on the use of those aircraft. After that date, the carrier claims to have contacted various carriers on several occasions with a view to chartering additional aircraft to pre-empt the possibility of an engine design defect being discovered in any of the aircraft in its fleet. On 28 June 2018, four days before the scheduled flight, an engine malfunction occurred during a flight operated by the aircraft scheduled to carry J.D. on the flight he had booked. In accordance with the recommendations of the engine manufacturer, the air carrier at issue in the main proceedings conducted an emergency inspection of the engine concerned and identified an engine design defect. After consulting the engine manufacturer, the engine concerned was taken out of service and was then disassembled and sent to a maintenance center for repair. Against that background, the carrier operated the flight scheduled for 2 July 2018 that same day, but it did not use the aircraft initially earmarked for that flight, opting instead for a replacement aircraft which arrived more than three hours after the originally scheduled arrival time. In the first place, the Court clearly answers that the detection of a hidden defect in the design of the engine of an aircraft which is to operate a flight is covered by the concept of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ within the meaning of Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) N° 261/2004, even where the engine manufacturer had informed the air carrier of the existence of a defect of that kind several months before the flight concerned. The point in time at which the link between the technical failure and the hidden design defect is revealed by the aircraft manufacturer, the engine manufacturer or the competent authority is indeed irrelevant, since that defect existed at the time of the cancellation or long delay of the flight and the carrier had no means of control to correct it. In the second place, it is reminded that in accordance with the case-law of the Court, since not all extraordinary circumstances confer exemption, in accordance with Article 5(3) of the Regulation, and that an air carrier is
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