Different concepts of “accident” in the meaning of the Montreal Convention and air carrier liability in EU law

Abstract

The subject of the article is the liability of air carriers for personal injury resulting from an “accident” within the meaning of paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Montreal Convention of 1999. Although this concept has been the subject of numerous controversies under the Warsaw Convention, its legal definition has still not been introduced in the new legal act. In an unprecedented Judgment of 19 December 2019 (case C 532/18), the Court of Justice of the European Union had to deal with the interpretation of this concept and specify the circumstances qualifying a given event as an “accident”. In reply to the question referred, the Court took the view that there is no need to determine whether an incident classified as an “accident” relates to a risk characteristic of air transport.