Insurers of the Germanwings airliner that crashed into a French mountain, killing all 150 on board, may pay out up to €300m because claims are unlikely to be challenged, say aviation lawyers
Aviation and insurance experts believe that neither Lufthansa, the parent company of the budget carrier, nor the German insurer Allianz, which is providing the bulk of the cover, are likely to resist claims made by victims' families.
James Healy-Pratt, head of the aviation department at the legal firm Stewarts Law in London, estimates that Allianz could eventually pay out as much as €300m.
"Under international aviation law, Germanwings will be liable to the families of the passengers to pay full compensatory civil compensation. Under those laws, there is a presumption of fault on behalf of Germanwings."
Signs that Andreas Lubitz, 27 - the co-pilot suspected of crashing the Airbus A320 deliberately - may have hid medical information from his employers do not alter this view.
Under international law, a victim's family is automatically entitled to $139,000 in compensation. But this is not a cap on liability.
Families may well press for more, given the circumstances of the crash.
Mr Healy-Pratt said that the airline could have taken preventive action by requiring two people to be in the cockpit at all times, as is the practice in the US and in some other countries.
In any case, given the presumption of fault, the claimants would not have to prove anything. It would be for the airline to prove that it was not negligent or in any way responsible.
Lufthansa is most unlikely to consider such a move. "No low-cost carrier wishes to have a low-safety and low-compensation tag," said Mr Healy-Pratt.
<
The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.
>An insurance industry executive agreed. "You don't want to run your client's name through the mud, or your own. This kind of case is highly emotional."Allianz said it was the lead insurer for Lufthansa's "hull and liability" insurance, which has two parts - one covering damage to the aircraft, and the other for compensation for passengers' relatives.
The German insurer said that in cases where a crash was caused by "malicious or hostile acts", the hull loss would be picked up by a separate, "war insurer". But the liability loss remained with Allianz and its co-insurers, it said.
Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa's chief executive, said on Thursday that the company would meet its financial liabilities, adding: "Our first priority is to help the families where we can."
© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation