French court awards more than 30 million € compensation over 2009 Yemenia Airlines accident …and highlights few legal issues on international air carrier liability

The French court of first instance (TGI) of Aix-en-Province has awarded damages of over 30 million Euros to the families of 70 passengers, who died at the crash of Yemenia airlines flight IY626 off shore from the Comoros islands on 30 June 2009. This is the second judgment on the case, the first one being rendered by the TGI Bobigny, which awarded about 7 million Euros to the families of three passengers. Some factual and legal parameters of the case are of great interest.

Flight MH370: A few clarifications on the notions of “accident”, “missing aircraft”, “liability” and their legal implications

The Malaysian government has officially declared the disappearance of flight MH370 an “accident” under Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention. It was reported that such statement aims at facilitating compensation of the families of victims. In law, it is not unusual to use the same terms with different meanings in different context. Such is the case of the term “accident” as used in accident and incident investigation, and in airline liability. The above Malaysian declaration causes confusion and raises questions.

Flight MH 370: US law firm plans lawsuit against Boeing and Malaysian Airlines

Reuters has reported that US law firm Ribbeck law plans a lawsuit against Malaysian Airlines and Boeing over the accident of flight MH 370. The firm is representing the relatives one of the persons presumed dead. It plans to turn also against component manufacturers and possibly maintenance service providers.