"I just started panicking": Air hostess gets payout after turbulence broke leg in seven places - but won't be able to return to 'dream job'

An air hostess left unable to do her dream job after breaking her leg in seven places during severe turbulence has won a six-figure payout. Eden Garrity, 31, was pushing a trolley as the Thomas Cook flight from Cuba to Manchester entered a violent Atlantic hail storm.

The impact of the turbulence thrust the flight 500ft upward, pinning Eden to the ground and snapping her ankle. Eden was unable to walk at all for two months after the incident and underwent numerous operations and intense rehabilitation.

She has been left with nerve damage which makes it painful for her to stand up for long periods, meaning she can never return to work as cabin crew. And while the payout has been a massive help for her financially, Eden says it doesn't make up for the fact that she'll never do her dream job again.

She said: “It has left me bitter, I’m resentful for it. It’s just frustrating. It was the best job in the world and I feel like I've lost a piece of my personality. You see people you’re friends with and they’re travelling in the skies and I’m not, I’m forever grounded. I’ll never be able to fly for work again.

“I feel lost, I’ve got a family and a son and it is great, but I’m very restricted in terms of what I can do. I miss making memories, seeing different countries. If not for the accident I’d have been able to fly in the future and it’s horrible.

"I appreciate the payout but it doesn’t bring back what I’ve lost. It helps in terms off getting my own property, but I’m 31 and I have the rest of my life ahead of me and I can’t do what I want to do."

Eden, of Leigh, was left lying on the floor of the plane for an hour while seats were cleared after the turbulence hit the flight. She was laid across the back row of the plane in