This is all about getting the airlines to do something before we lose more lives.”The airlines say they are doing something, but it is small pieces in in-flight magazines and videos. If Neil had known of any precautions he would have taken them and would be here today.”They are saying only long-haul flights are affected, but there’s growing evidence it’s flights of two hours and more. He was a fit young lad who went on a family holiday and never returned.”Lawyers for the claimants are expected to argue that the aviation industry knew of the risks of DVT for decades yet failed to warn passengers.Gerda Goldinger, a lawyer at Watford-based Collins Solicitors, said: “Airlines are now issuing warnings and advising passengers to take the necessary precautions. It’s our position that they ought to have done this a long time ago.”Yesterday’s hearing centred specifically on Mrs Walcott’s suit against British Airways. Her husband, from Benfleet, Essex, died a day after getting off a flight from the Caribbean in October 2000.Robert Lawson, representing a number of airlines, insisted there was an important preliminary issue to be decided first. This was whether DVT could be deemed an accident under the terms of the Warsaw Convention, he said.The Convention, which applies to all international carriage of persons by aircraft for reward, allows for recovery of compensation only in respect of personal injury or death caused by an accident.”In our submission, the only true group issue that we can ascertain at the moment is as to whether, as a matter of principle, the onset of DVT in the course of, or arising out of, carriage by air, can amount to an accident,” he said.Some estimates suggest there could be 1,000 to 2,000 deaths from DVT each year..

A tuba player who was confined to a wheelchair after falling from a carnival float has reached a £600,000 settlement with insurance firms. His injuries were very bad and he’s now confined to a wheelchair,” Mr Jackson said.Mr Gill, a former railway engineer, was pressing his case for compensation at a trial at the High Court in Leeds this week but yesterday the firms insuring the lorry driver and the vehicle’s owners agreed to a £600,000 settlement.Mr Jackson said the money would go towards Mr Gill’s care. Mr Gill, who learnt to play the tuba late in life, still plays with the band using a special instrument support.. Police have launched a hunt for two Americans who are believed to have been hired by a depressed woman to fly to Ireland to help her commit suicide.

She is thought to have contacted the American group via an internet chatroom. A friend said she had planned her suicide for months.Police are examining footage from surveillance cameras at two Irish airports in an attempt to identify the suspects. They are also checking e-mail correspondence with an organisation in the United States. Forensic science officers have searched the flat for fingerprints.Ms Toole – who was also known by her married name, Gilhooly – is believed to have been found with a plastic bag around her head, attached to a gas container. Toxicology tests are being done to determine the exact cause of death. Police are investigating reports that the two Americans, possibly from West Virginia, flew to Dublin airport at the weekend and assisted with the suicide before leaving the country from Shannon airport with a payment of about $6,000 (£4,200).Libby Wilson, a retired GP and founder member of Friends at the End, a Glasgow-based group that sympathises with euthanasia, said Ms Toole had spent the last year of her life planning how to end it She said: “She was totally determined to end her life.