Well you raise some interesting scenarios, but I think you have to look at the intent of the regulation. In the event of an accident, the airline will make an ex-gratia payment to relieve hardship and leave liability to be settled later, perhaps. But in this case, I think you would have a hard time making such a case. Narrow aisles are inherant in the design of the aircraft and they would simply argue that if there is insufficient room for two, the woman should not have attempted to brush past you. She was negligent. It is not the same thing as the rush of shoppers. In that scenario, the shop has created the conditions under which large crowds gather for very limited numbers of items, at exceptionally low prices. Therefore, the shop has created the conditions under which the risk is known and they must do what they can to mitigate it. A female student, raped in a school dormitary does not make the school automatically liable. If the school knew there was predator, failed to take adequate security measures or the rapist was in their employ and under their control perhaps...but a random act by a stranger doesn't automatically create liability because it took place on your premises. If a rapist dragged a woman off the street into your garden and raped her, does that create liability for you because it happened on your property?
I think you are right about this. Lufthansa have treated you badly. The lack of response it outrageous and it would at least give you some certainty. If they wrote back, stating unequivocably that they do not consider themselves to have any liability, you would at least have had the courtesy of a reply. Many airlines adopt the ignore them and hope they go away strategy and you are rightly annoyed. It is, as you say, also abundantly clear from this forum and others that this is not an isolated incident, but a pattern.
Nevertheless, I don't think on the facts you have presented here that they are liable. I am not a lawyer however, so depending on your jurisdiction, you could take a punt on filing a small claims court claim. In the UK, that would cost you maybe 30 pounds, no lawyers required, can be done entirely online and has the big advantage of forcing the airline to respond. If they fail to do so, they will have a judgement entered against them. Depends on how strongly you feel about it.
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