Celebrity plane engineer who flew with rock stars including the Foo Fighters and Slash is suing Antarctic airfield for £200,000 after Russian jet blew him over, breaking his thigh bone

• Stuart Lunn says he was sent flying onto a South Pole runway in February 2018   
• 58-year-old blames airfield owners for letting Russian jet land too close to him 
• Engineer maintains 757 jets that have also flown Pharrell Williams and Slash

An engineer who fixes celebrity private jets is suing for more than £200,000, claiming he was sent flying by the blast of a Russian plane in Antarctica which ‘broke his thigh bone.’ 

Stuart Lunn, who maintains 757 jets and has flown with the Foo Fighters, Pharrell Williams and Slash, says he was injured when he fell from the steps of his plane onto a ‘blue ice’ runway near the South Pole in February 2018.

Mr Lunn, who was working for a charter airline, claims his fall was caused by a gust from the engines of a Russian jet which had landed nearby at the Novo Airfield, in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica.

He is now fighting for six-figure damages from the company which runs the airfield, blaming them for letting the Russian jet land too close to where he was working.

But Mr Lunn is struggling to get his case off the ground in the UK, due to a dispute over whether it should be heard at London’s High Court or in South Africa.

Stuart Lunn, who fixes celebrity private jets, is suing for more than £200,000, claiming he was sent flying by the blast of a Russian plane in Antarctica

Mr Lunn maintains 757 jets and has flown with Slash from the band Guns N. Roses (Pictured together)

Mr Lunn pictured with surgeon Ian Koller after receiving treatment following his fall from plane steps in Antarctica

The Novo airfield is a ‘blue ice’ airstrip of layered ice, so named due to its distinctive azure colour, and serves as the international gateway for flights to and from Cape Town, as well as the hub for domestic flights within Antarctica.

It is situated in Queen Maud Land, a one million square mile stretch of rock and ice over which Norway asserts control, but was built by the Russian Antarctic Expedition.

During a hearing at the London court, judge Master Gary Thornett was told that Mr Lunn claims to have been sent plummeting to the ice due to the blast of air from the Russian jet.

He had been trying to secure the steps of the 757 – on which he had flown the 2,400-mile journey from South Africa – to the ice, but instead ended up injured on the ground after suffering the fall.

As well as his leg he also injured his shoulder and pelvis in the fall and he was evacuated to Cape Town, in South Africa, where he underwent extensive rehabilitation and several operations to treat his injuries.

The 58-year-old engineer, from Rochdale, Lancashire, is now suing the company which runs the Novo airfield, Antarctic Logistics Centre International.

Mr Lunn’s lawyers claim Antarctic Logistics was at fault in allowing the Russian plane to pass too close to the Boeing 757 on which he was working.

‘The case is advanced on the basis of ‘occupation’ of the airfield by Antarctic Logistics,’ explained the company’s KC, Sarah Crowther, in written arguments.

But she claimed her clients had no idea the plane with Mr Lunn aboard had landed at the time and Antarctic Logistics had not authorised Mr Lunn to be on the airfield.

Over the course of his career, Mr Lunn has transported stars including Pharell Williams and Foo Fighters legend Dave Grohl 

The Novo airfield is a ‘blue ice’ airstrip of layered ice, so named due to its distinctive azure colour

‘The fundamental difficulty with the claimant’s pleaded case is that an airfield is, for obvious reasons, a dangerous place to which access is restricted,’ she said.

‘It needs no explanation to an experienced aircraft engineer that it is an area which ought not to be entered without permission or outside permitted times.

‘There is no pleaded case that sets out any facts or matters on which it would be open to the court to conclude that Mr Lunn was either given permission to be on the airfield or that the defendant was in fact aware that Mr Lunn along with the other crew of the Boeing B757 were on board the aircraft or in the airfield.

‘For example, it is not asserted that the pilot of the Boeing B757 had notified Antarctic Logistics that his crew were on the airfield or on board the plane and that the defendant had consented to the same.

‘Nor is there any factual basis set out by which it might be said that, absent obtaining express permission to enter the airfield, the defendant in any way granted implied permission.’

In addition to denying liability for the accident, Ms Crowther insists that the engineer’s case should be knocked out before even reaching trial because he delayed too long before issuing his legal claim.

And on top of that, Antarctic Logistics is challenging Mr Lunn’s insistence that his case should go before the English courts when it comes to trial, pointing out that the question of what state controls the land around Novo airfield is politically and legally blurred.

Although Norway asserts sovereignty over the territory, the airstrip was in fact built by the Russian Antarctic Expedition and is located close to its research station.

Given that background, the trial should probably be conducted under Russian law, ‘because that’s the system of law which applies to the Russian airfield,’ said the KC.

But in view of the practical problems connected with holding a trial in Russia, Ms Crowther suggested South Africa would be the correct forum for a trial conducted under either Russian or South African law.

Antarctic Logistics is a South Africa-based company and Mr Lunn was hospitalised in that country for five weeks after his fall, said the barrister.

‘There is little or no reason to connect this claim with England, other than the claimant’s nationality and some of the indirect damage,’ she argued.

The issue of the right place for the trial, alongside that of whether the claim should be allowed to go ahead at all, came before the High Court in London in a pre-trial skirmish between lawyers, but the judge has yet to deliver his ruling.

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