MARCH 27, 2015
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (AP)
Lufthansa could face "unlimited" compensation
claims for the crash that killed 150 people in the French alps and it would be
difficult, even counterproductive, for the German carrier to try to avoid
liability, experts said Friday.
Under a treaty governing deaths and injuries aboard
international flights, airlines are required to compensate relatives of victims
for proven damages of up to a limit currently set at about $157,000 —
regardless of what caused the crash.
But higher compensation is possible if a carrier is held
liable.
"So more or less you will have unlimited financial
damage," said Marco Abate, a German aviation lawyer.
To avoid liability, a carrier has to prove that the crash
wasn't due to "negligence or other wrongful act" by its employees,
according to Article 21 of the 1999 Montreal Convention.
That would be a difficult argument to make when a pilot
intentionally crashes a plane into a mountain, and one that Lufthansa would
likely avoid as it could further damage the brand, Abate said.
Investigators say the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525
locked himself into the cockpit and slammed the Airbus A320 into the Alps.
Germanwings is a subsidiary of Lufthansa.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr on Thursday said the airline
would honor "international arrangements regulating liability." The
company is offering immediate aid of up to 50,000 euros ($54,800) per passenger
to relatives of the victims. Those payments are separate from eventual
compensation payments.
How much the airline ends up paying in compensation will
depend on where claims are filed. The options in this case, a German flight en
route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, are many, said Dutch lawyer Sander de
Lang.
"For example, French law because that is where it ...
crashed, German law because in most cases the passengers had return tickets to
and from Germany. But some people may have bought tickets in Spain, then
Spanish law could be appropriate," he said.
In some countries including the Netherlands, there's no
compensation for emotional suffering, he said.
Damages are typically much lower in Europe than in the U.S.,
where in domestic air crashes, juries have awarded plaintiffs sometimes
millions of dollars per passenger.
The families of the three American victims could sue the
airline in U.S. courts. Article 33 of the Montreal Convention states that a
passenger's "principal and permanent residence" is used to determine
jurisdiction for lawsuits regarding passenger deaths or injuries.
Abate said that in German courts, damages for pain and
suffering typically don't exceed 10,000 euros ($11,000). However, Lufthansa
could face much bigger claims for loss of financial support. If the breadwinner
of a family was killed in a plane crash, the survivors can sue for years of
lost income, Abate said.
Several analysts said Lufthansa will probably reach
settlements with relatives of victims to avoid going to court.
Once the shock and grief subsides, the compensation issues
should be resolved quickly, said Wouter Munten, a Dutch lawyer representing
relatives of victims of last year's downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in
Ukraine.
"People always say take your time for grief," he
said. "But not everyone has the luxury to wait. Children have to be fed
and go to school."
Source: AP.com