Germanwings threatening multimillion-dollar lawsuits because of the disaster A320 – RBC

Place Airbus A320 crash in France

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Relatives of those killed on March 24 in the French Alps passengers Airbus A320 can produce a low-cost airlines Germanwings multimillion-dollar lawsuits, the amount of which exceeds the ceiling of payments provided for in such cases, international law, aviation lawyers say.

According to the 1999 Montreal Convention, the mandatory compensation to the families of dead was 113.1 thousand. Special Drawing Rights (SDR, the IMF’s unit of account), or the current rate of $ 157 thousand. per person. Over 144 dead passengers Germanwings will pay $ 22.7 million. However, relatives of the victims and the right to demand more compensation if they consider that the carrier could have prevented the accident, but did not due to negligence.

According to the lawyers who had previously represented relatives of those killed in a plane crash in potential claims against Germanwings can we talk about how carefully checked airline co-pilot Andreas A320 Ljubica fitness to fly, before he came to work in loukoster and after. Furthermore, they claim can be associated with the need to find the “two people” in the cockpit of a passenger aircraft during the flight time. European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is considering making this long position status of a Recommendation.

Europe mourns the victims of the disaster in the Alps A320 Gallery In the accident aircraft A320, the victim March 24, 2015 crash in the French Alps, killing 150 people. Basically it is the citizens of Spain and Germany. Among the victims of the accident is also a US citizens, Morocco, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Holland, Mexico, Denmark, Belgium, Israel, Iran and Venezuela. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy arrived at the crash site, to form their impression of what happened.
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Relatives of the victims will be entitled to raise the question of why Andreas Ljubica left in the cockpit of one, Reuters said Justin Green, a partner at the New York law firm Kreindler & amp; Kreindler.

According to current German law, pilots can temporarily leave the cockpit at certain times and under certain circumstances, such as when the aircraft is moving at cruising speed. But even with this situation in which Lubicz stayed in a cabin alone, was “fraught with known risks,” says Green, since cases of a plane crash caused by the deliberate actions of the pilots were known before.

The general director of Lufthansa Carsten Spohr has already announced that the airline will fulfill all the obligations imposed on it by international standards: “We are able to fulfill all financial obligations. Any help families [dead] – our priority ».

According to lawyers, claims for compensation for damage may be filed in several jurisdictions – in addition to Germany, where he is based Germanwings, we can also go to Spain, whose citizens there was a significant number of passengers on board.

Relatives of the victims have the right to claim compensation for provable loss. It varies depending on the jurisdiction and may be associated with the loss of a breadwinner as well as to non-pecuniary damage (tested pain and suffering), lawyers say.

According to Bruce Otley, director of the International Institute of Aviation Law, University of De Field (Chicago), it is unlikely that Germanwings will have to pay compensation that exceeds the payments stipulated by the Montreal Convention unless it turns out that the company was originally known about health problems in the co-pilot.

In most cases, Airlines prefer not to bring the case to court, adds Otley. And this case may not be an exception, he concludes.

Germanwings will be able to limit their obligations [to the families of the dead], if he proves that the company and its employees or agents or in any way responsible for the disaster, or prove that it was caused by third parties, says Clive Garner, a partner of the London law firm Irwin Mitchell. But “taking into account the currently available data, it is unlikely that Germanwings will be able to build a defense in this way,” concludes Garner.

The compensation for the destruction of the aircraft in the amount of $ 6.5 million was paid on Wednesday, a source told Reuters in the insurance industry. The primary insurer aircraft – the German company Allianz.