The Warsaw Convention

What does the Warsaw Convention signify?

1Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating
to International Transportation by Air, Oct. 12, 1929, 49
Stat. 3000 (1934), 137 L.N.T.S. 11, reprinted in 49 U.S.C. §
40105 note.

"[T]he Warsaw Convention created a comprehensive
liability system to serve as the exclusive mechanism for
remedying injuries suffered in the course of the
‘international transportation of persons, baggage, or goods
performed by aircraft.’"

The parties are in agreement that
Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention is applicable to passenger's
claim and provides the exclusive means of any relief,



they disagree,
however, as to whether Scala has actually stated a claim under
the Convention.
Article 17 provides:
The carrier shall be liable for damage sustained in
the event of the death or wounding of a passenger or
any other bodily injury suffered by a passenger, if
the accident which caused the damage so sustained
took place on board the aircraft or in the course of
any of the operations of embarking or disembarking.
While Article 17 preempts a large swath of claims,

a plaintiff may actually recover
damages for claims within Article 17's preemptive scope if:
(1) an accident has occurred, in which (2) a passenger
suffered death, wounding, or any other bodily injury, and (3)
the accident occurred either on board the aircraft or in the
course of embarking or disembarking from the plane.

An accident, for the purposes of Article 17, is "an
unexpected or unusual event or happening that is external to
the passenger." Air France v. Saks, 470 U.S. 392, 405 (1985).
In Saks, the Supreme Court held that there was no Article 17
"accident" when plaintiff’s deafness resulted from the routine
and expected operation of the airplane’s pressurization system

"[A]ccident" does not include the normal operation
of the aircraft or the procedures followed by
airline personnel in the normal course of air
travel, even though they may cause illness in a
passenger. As the Supreme Court stated in Saks,
"When the injury indisputably results from the
passenger's own internal reaction to the usual,
normal, and expected operation of the aircraft, it
has not been caused by an accident."



The Warsaw Convention, which took place in Warsaw on October 12, 1929, comprising experts in the field of aviation law from 31 nations, intended to create a legal framework that binds international aviation even today. Its regulatory issues consist of mandates covering carriers to issue passenger tickets, baggage checks for luggage, compensation amount and limitation period for claiming compensation. It was amended later at The Hague, in 1955, and in Montreal in 1999.
— Nilotpal Ray, Gorakhpur