An Air France passenger who was flying from Houston to Paris Charles de Gaulle says he was seriously injured and has been left disfigured after his Business Class seat came loose from its rails as the pilots performed an emergency stop on the runway.
Sofiane Licir from Brazoria County, Texas, was ‘propelled’ forward into the TV screen and hard plastic shell of his Business Class, leaving him with permanent injuries following the December 2022 incident.
In a recently filed lawsuit in a Texas district court, Licir says the accident occurred when the pilots of the Airbus A350 ‘abruptly’ aborted the takeoff just as the plane appeared to be reaching its takeoff speed.
As the aircraft rapidly came to a halt on the runway, the lie-flat Business Class seat suddenly and unexpectedly came loose from its rail and sent Licir flying forward.
The lawsuit claims that Air France failed to tell Licir that not only had the Business Class seat that he had been assigned been the subject of prior repair but that other Business Class seats on the airline’s A350 fleet had also experienced similar malfunctions.
Licir is suing Air France under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, which is a globally recognized law that makes airlines liable for injuries sustained by passengers during an international flight.
Claims under the Montreal Convention are normally capped at 128,821 Special Drawing Rights – an international asset created by the IMF representing a basket of different currencies.
At present, 128,821 Special Drawing Rights are equivalent to around $172,000. The maximum compensation limit under the Montreal Convention was last adjusted in 2019 when the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) increased the limit from 100,000 SDR.
However, in this case, Licir says that the compensation cap should be removed because Air France was ‘grossly negligent’ in allowing the accident to happen. As a result, Licir says the court should be able to award punitive damages against Air France on top of the limit imposed by the Montreal Convention.
The only defense that airlines can use against claims made under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention is to prove that the accident was caused by the negligence or deliberate act of the injured passenger.
In this case, however, Licir says blame lands squarely at the feet of Air France and its maintenance division.
Airlines will usually try to settle claims made under the Montreal Convention out of court, meaning that there isn’t a huge amount of case law when it comes to these kinds of lawsuits.
However, in recent months, we’ve seen several carriers, including Delta Air Lines, fight back against a slew of lawsuits brought by passengers. In one case, a Delta passenger flying from Paris to New York JFK says she was seriously injured when a flight attendant pushed a drinks cart into her shoulder.
Delta is fighting this lawsuit, claiming the injuries incurred by the victim were, in fact, the result of her own negligence.
