An air passenger's unfortunate fall down the stairs and an ‘accidental’ decision of the CJEU Michael Wukoschitz, Austria The Montreal Convention (MC) provides for strict liability (up to the liability limit of 1 Art 21(1)) of the carrier for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger if that death or injury was caused by an accident on board the aircraft or in the course of embarking or disembarking. As in the Warsaw Convention (WC), 2 3 the term ‘accident’, which is central to liability, is not defned in the MC, which is why case law and literature have dealt extensively with this term. Recently, the interpretation of this term in connection with the fall of a passenger on a mobile passenger staircase when disembarking from the aircraft was once again referred to the CJEU by an Austrian Court. The result of the interpretation in its most recent 4 decision, according to which such a fall for ‘no ascertainable reason’ falls under the 5 term ‘accident’, breaks with the established case law of national courts in numerous Member States and thus holds considerable explosive power. 1. The case facts of JR v Austrian Airlines After the arrival of a fight operated by Austrian Airlines from Thessaloniki to Vienna on 30 May 2019, the passengers exited the aircraft via a (non-covered) mobile staircase. The plaintif's husband went frst with the hand luggage trolleys, the plaintif followed, carrying her handbag in her right hand and having her two-year-old son in her left arm. After the plaintif had observed her husband almost fall in the lower third of the stairs, she herself fell in the same place and broke her left forearm, with which she had hit the edge of the stairs. The court could not determine the reason for the fall: although the staircase was a little wet due to previous rain, it was neither slippery nor dirty. Neither the plaintiff nor her husband had used the handrail of the stairs. Convention for the Unifcation of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air 1 [1999]. Article 17 para 1 MC. 2 Convention for the Unifcation of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by 3 Air [1929]. LG Korneuburg (Regional Court Korneuburg) 15.09.2020, 22 R 122/20a. 4 CJEU, judgement of 02.06.2022 in case C-598/20 – JR v Austrian Airlines. 5
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