• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.337-371
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• 2015

In recent years, aviation safety has been facing new hazards due to the rapidly changing environment in which aircraft operation increasingly finds. Continuously increasing air traffic volume, integration of various cultures from many States, and many other changes are the causal factors of the new risks. To identify such new hazards and risks, the government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) established aviation safety reporting systems in accordance with the international standards of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. However, there are some misunderstandings by the government in operating and by the personnel who take part in these reporting systems. Everybody should understand that aviation safety reporting system is not a punitive measure but a tool for collecting data in order to improve safety. In addition, such a system can be utilized further to promote an improved awareness on the need for a proper safety culture on the part of both the government, the industry and the personnel. This paper includes studies on international standards, relevant regulations in the United States and the United Kingdom. Moreover, this paper proposes to the government of ROK several points to improve their own system, including integration of the existing reporting systems, improvement of reporting items, implementation of safety data taxonomy and the establishment of safety data protection.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.279-310
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• 2015

The Montreal Convention is an agreement that governs the liability of air carriers for injury and death to passengers travelling internationally by air. The Montreal Convention serves as the exclusive legal framework for victims and survivors seeking compensation for injuries or death arising from accidents involving international air travel. The Montreal Convention sets monetary liability caps on damages in order to promote the financial stability of the international airline transport industry and protect the industry from exorbitant damages awards in courts that would inevitably bankrupt an airline. The Convention allows a litigant suing under the Convention to avoid the liability caps in instances where the airline's culpability for the injury or death is the direct result of negligence, another wrongful act, or an omission of the airline or its agents. The Montreal Convention identifies specific locations as appropriate venues to advance claims for litigants seeking compensation. These venues are closely tied to either the carrier's business operations or the passenger's domicile. In March 2015, in an act of suicide stemming from reactive depression, the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 9525 intentionally crashed the aircraft into the French Alps killing the passengers and the remaining crew. Subsequent to the crash, there were media reports that Lufthansa made varying settlement offers to families of the passengers who died aboard the flight ranging from $8,300 USD to $4.5 Million USD depending on the passengers' citizenship. The unverified offers by Lufthansa prompted outcries from the families of the decedent passengers that they would institute suit against the airline in a more plaintiff friendly jurisdiction such as the United States. The first part of this article accomplishes two goals. First, it examines the Montreal Convention's venue requirement along with an overview of the recoverable damages from countries comprising the citizenship of the passengers who were not American. The intentional crash of Germanwings flight 9525 by its First Officer encompasses the possibility that Lufthansa may be exposed to unlimited compensatory damages beyond the liability caps contained in the Convention. The second part of this article explores the application of the Convention's liability limits to the Germanwings flight to demonstrate that the likelihood of escaping the liability limits is slim.