91999E2784

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2784/99

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 January 2000)

Subject: Compensation for relatives of victims following air crash

Following the crash in northern Greece on 17 December 1997 of a Ukrainian Yakovlev belonging to Aerosweet Airlines, which caused huge loss of life, the committee of inquiry into air accidents concluded that responsibility lay with the airline, a fact that was not contested. To date no compensation or advance on compensation has been paid to the victims' relatives since the victims were identified, as required under Council Regulation 2027/97(1).

Not only does the airline appear reluctant to compensate them, it is even holding them in contempt in various ways. In a letter to the Minister for Transport dated 23 April 1999, the Director-General of the airline and a Ukrainian Government spokesman stated that unless Aerosweet flights to Greece continued, its insurance company (Sedgewick Aviation Limited) would not pay out compensation to the victims' relatives.

In the light of this crude blackmailing of the victims' relatives, will the Commission say:

1. Whether Aerosweet runs scheduled flights or charter flights to other Member States of the Union?

2. What Aerosweet's obligations are under Council Regulation 2027?

3. In what way it may intervene, pursuant to Council Regulation 2027, to persuade the airline to compensate the victims' relatives, given that they are unable to meet the cost of a lengthy and expensive legal battle?

(1) OJ L 285, 17.10.1997, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(10 March 2000)

1. According to available information, Aerosweet Airlines currently operates scheduled services from Ukraine to Athens several times each week using Boeing 737 aircraft. The Commission has no information about charter flights performed by Aerosweet Airlines.

2. Regulation (EC) 2027/97 of 9 October 1997 on air carrier liability in the event of accidents was published in the Official Journal on 17 October 1997, but did not enter into force until 17 October 1998. Moreover, the main provisions of the Regulation, including the requirements for advance payment of compensation and the application of unlimited liability for death and injury, are not obligatory for carriers from outside the Community. In this particular accident, therefore, the Regulation is not applicable and the Warsaw Convention of 1929 is likely to govern and will probably limit the amount of compensation for which the carrier is liable.

3. The Commission is not in a position to intervene in this case. Faced with a clear conclusion in the investigation of the accident, it would be usual for the airline to reach a settlement with the families of the victims, however, if it proves impossible to reach such a settlement, there may be no option other than to bring the matter before a court. It is understood that the families of some victims have taken this step.