John Loughlin claims the bottle struck him after it dropped from an overhead luggage bin when another passenger opened it on the transatlantic Aer Lingus flight from Boston to Dublin in 2016.

The restaurant owner from Rhode Island filed his personal injuries action in the US and alleges, among other things, improper packing, negligence and failure to secure the overhead containers.

Aer Lingus has faced a number of lawsuits in the US over recent years and in 2015 successfully defended a $1 million action brought by a passenger who argued their engagement ring had been stolen.