YL V ALTENRHEIN LUFTFAHRT GMBH

Case C-70/20, Court of Justice of the European Union, 12 May 2021

Air transport – Montreal Convention 1999 – Injury suffered from hard landing within ordinary operating range of aircraft – Whether there was an “accident” – Meaning of “unforeseen”

On 20 March 2014, YL travelled from Vienna (Austria) to St Gallen/Altenrhein (Switzerland) on a flight operated by ALG. There was a hard landing, albeit one within the normal operating range of the aircraft in question. The evidence showed that, due to the mountainous nature of the area hard landings could be safer than soft landings. YL claimed to have suffered a spinal injury from the hard landing. YL brought an action under article 17 of the Montreal Convention 1999 (Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air 1999), by which “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”.