Travel accidents · Flights
If you were hurt on board, or while getting on or off, the airline is liable without you having to prove fault, up to a set limit. The catch is a 2-year time limit that can’t be extended.
Time limits · Queensland and Commonwealth law
Flight time limits run 2 years from arrival, or from when the flight should have arrived or the journey stopped, and can’t be extended. The terminal notice is due within 9 months of the incident (or of first symptoms, if later), or 1 month after you ask a lawyer to act for you and the party responsible is known, whichever comes first.
Which rules apply
Any flight between countries that are party to the Convention, including Australia.
Flights within Australia.
Terminal, baggage hall, car park or kerb at a Queensland airport, before you start boarding.
SDR (special drawing right) is the IMF’s unit of account. Its value in Australian dollars changes daily.
Connections
A flight injury can involve more than one business. We work out which of them to claim against, and where.
How it happened
Each of these can be an accident under the Convention, because something outside you caused the injury.
Sudden turbulence throws you into the cabin wall, a locker or the aisle, often during service or with the seatbelt sign off.
A case or bag drops from an overhead locker when it’s opened in flight or on arrival.
Tea, coffee or a hot meal spilled on you during service, or in a sudden jolt.
A service cart hits your knee, hip or shoulder in the aisle.
Aircraft stairs, the aerobridge, a boarding ramp or a wheelchair transfer. Getting on and off counts.
Check-in
Baggage claim
How the damages are assessed depends on where the claim is brought.
Now boarding
In order, from the first call to court if it’s needed.
Costs
No win, no fee*
If your claim doesn’t succeed, you pay no professional fees for our work. You may still have to pay outlays, such as report and court fees, if your costs agreement says so. If a court case is lost or withdrawn, or you don’t do better than an offer the other side made, you may have to pay the other side’s legal costs. We explain this in writing before you sign.
You decide whether to go ahead once you know your options and the likely costs.
Fees and outlays are set out in a costs agreement before we start.
Our professional fees are capped at 50% of what you recover, after refunds and outlays. (Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) s 347)
Information desk
Not up to the first limit. For an accident on board, or while you were getting on or off, the airline is liable up to 151,880 SDR on an international flight without you proving fault, and above that it pays unless it proves it wasn’t negligent. For domestic flights, federal law sets a limit on an airline’s liability for bodily injury caused by an accident. Qualifications apply, and an airline’s contract may set a higher limit. We can check how the rules apply to your flight.
Often, yes. Turbulence that throws you around the cabin is usually an unexpected event outside you. What matters is what happened, so write down the details while they’re fresh.
Your body’s own reaction to a normal flight. Deep vein thrombosis from a long flight isn’t an accident, (Povey v Qantas, 2005) and psychological injury on its own, with no bodily injury, generally isn’t covered.
Court action must start within 2 years of arriving, or of when the flight should have arrived. For international and Australian domestic flights that can’t be extended. Injuries in a Queensland terminal follow Queensland’s notice rules and 3-year limit.
Often, yes. For injury claims the Convention lets you sue where you live, if the airline flies there. It also allows the airline’s home country, where the ticket was bought and your destination.
Injuries before you start boarding usually fall outside the Convention. They’re a negligence claim against the airport operator, the ground handler or the business at fault, under Queensland law if it happened here.
When an airline must pay for a turbulence injury, how little it can do to avoid that, and the two-year deadline that ends the claim outright.
What the SQ321 turbulence injuries showed about airline liability — the convention that governs it, and the two-year deadline it imposes.
What you can claim after an accident overseas — flights, transfers, tours and hotels each answer to a different set of rules.
The 2-year limit can’t be extended. Talk to a lawyer now. There’s no obligation to go ahead.
General information only, not legal advice about your situation. No win, no fee*: if the claim doesn’t succeed, you pay no professional fees; whether outlays are payable depends on your costs agreement. If a court case is lost or withdrawn, or you don’t do better than an offer the other side made, you may have to pay the other side’s legal costs.
