Sympathies to the families for their loss. It may be very difficult for them financially to recover from this tragedy.
By Edna Curran
HONG KONG—The AirAsia Flight 8501 disaster (click here) has cast a spotlight on an insurance treaty that could restrict compensation for victim’s families to a fraction of the assistance offered to victims of the Malaysia Airlines disasters this year, experts say.
Indonesia, unlike its neighbors Malaysia or Singapore, hasn’t signed the Montreal Convention, an international treaty that offers payments from airlines covering total liability of around $170,000 a passenger and covers advance payments for accommodation and transport costs for the families of victims after an air crash. Carriers based in countries that have signed the 2003 treaty are liable for the compensation, which is separate from personal insurance contracts.
Indonesia observes an older aviation agreement—the Warsaw Convention of 1929—which has a substantially lower liability limit per victim of around $8,300 according to one expert’s estimates, and doesn't require advance payments for passenger’s families....
...Some passengers may be covered by the Montreal Convention, however. For example, passengers with a one-way or return ticket from Indonesia to Singapore will be governed by the Warsaw treaty, but if the passenger had departed from a country that ratified the Montreal agreement and the final destination was also a signatory to the convention, that victim is eligible for compensation under the newer aviation agreement.
“It comes down to individual claims. You have a hundred plus passengers--some may have purchased tickets in different countries, some may have been on a leg of a three-leg ticket that was covered by Montreal,” said Robert Jensen, Chief Executive of Kenyon International Emergency Services, a crisis and disaster management company.
The International Air Transport Association has in the past urged Indonesia to ratify the Montreal Convention, last year even specifically warning of the dangers if a plane crashes from the country en route to Singapore.
