Govt fails to ratify Montreal Convention

Compensation for air travelers

Despite repeated pledges, the government has failed to ratify the Montreal Convention (MC) that guarantees higher compensation to the passengers. Soon after the crash of US Bangla aircraft at the Kathmandu airport, the issue of compensation payment to victims of the tragic accident surfaced.

When it was revealed that the victims of the crash would get much lower compensation due to the non-ratification of the MC by Bangladesh, the government pledged to take quick steps to do so.

On May 09, civil aviation and tourism minister Shahjahan Kamal said that the government had taken an initiative to ratify the convention to help Bangladeshi air travellers to get higher insurance money in case of any accident or damage of baggage.

But it can be assumed the present government cannot ratify the convention as there is no session of the parliament before the general elections scheduled to be held on December 30.

According to officials at the civil aviation ministry, a draft of an aviation safety law in line with the Montreal Convention was finalised but it could not be sent to the cabinet as the drafting was not vetted by the ministries concerned.

The new law was drafted in line with the convention so that when it is passed in parliament, the convention will be ratified, a senior official of the aviation ministry told the FE preferring not to be named.

The convention, formally known as the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, is a multilateral treaty adopted at a diplomatic meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) member states in 1999.

Recently, the US Bangla plane crash victims were compensated by the insurer as per the Warsaw Convention. On an average, they received US$52,000 each.

Bangladesh signed the pact on May 28, 1999 but has not ratified it yet.

The delay in ratifying the MC has deprived the families of the victims of a reasonable amount of compensation. The convention imposes a minimum liability of nearly $113,000 SDR (Special Drawing Rights), equivalent to $169,000, for each passenger.

Being a signatory, India, ratified the convention in 2009, followed by amendment to the domestic law. Hence, the rules are applied to Indian passengers.

The convention says, "The carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger upon condition only that the accident which caused the death or injury took place on board the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking."

Air carriers are liable for any damage, death or any physical injury that occur to passengers or their belongings in-flight or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking unless the damage results from the passenger's own fault.

The domestic law for implementing the convention in Bangladesh is the Carriage by Air Act 1934.

The first schedule contains the documents of carriage, baggage check, airway bill along with liability of carrier.

The second schedule contains provision as to liability of carriers in the event of the death of a passenger.

• Courtesy: The Financial Express/ Nov 19, 2018