Passengers injured in the fatal collision at the LaGuardia Airport earlier this week have various legal options, say aviation law experts, and could file litigation in either the U.S. or Canada.
Canadian air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs says Air Canada could be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars per passenger.
The collision between the Air Canada Express jet and a local port authority fire truck shortly after the plane landed Sunday killed both pilots and sent more than 40 people to hospital.
The Montreal Convention 1999 is an international treaty that established a modern framework for liability, in case of accidents.
The agreement states that carriers are liable for damage sustained in cases of death or bodily injuries that occurred on board aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking.
“It doesn’t matter who is at fault, the airline has the liability,” said Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights.
For that reason, he said, passengers should make Air Canada the primary target of any lawsuits they file as they try to prove damages.
Lukacs said the only exception to that advice is if a passenger’s damages are above the convention’s limit or they want to pursue potentially larger damages in the U.S.
The current rates listed by the convention could allow passengers to receive nearly $300,000 if they sue the airline.
Lawsuits must be filed within two years of the incident, according to the Carriage by Air Act that provides legal backing for the convention in Canada.
Air Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, the airline's president and CEO, Michael Rousseau, said in a statement released Thursday that the airline was "co-operating fully" as safety boards in Canada and the U.S. investigate the cause of the collision.
"As president and chief executive officer of Air Canada, it is my duty to support those affected by this tragedy," he said in the statement.
B.C.-based aviation lawyer Joe Fiorante agrees that passengers may want to chase potentially larger damages by filing a lawsuit in the United States.
He said that injured passengers should hire an American lawyer as they have a strong case against the Federal Aviation Administration.
"Based on the preliminary information, there appears to be a very clear cut case of negligence on the part of the FAA," said Fiorante, a founding partner at CFM Lawyers.
But, he said, passengers who survived with only minor injuries could choose to start litigation against Air Canada as it may be the "simplest, most expedient route to go get some compensation."
Kevin Durkin, head of aviation at Clifford Law in Chicago, says he expects passengers to sue the U.S. aviation agency and local port authority within a week.
If there’s no settlement in the case of a lawsuit, Durkin warned the amount of time passengers could spend at court may vary.
“Some courts are slow and take forever,” Durkin said.
“And then there’s some … rocket dockets where the judge says, ‘I’m getting this case done in a year and a half.’”
Picture Courtesy: AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
