Air India's Legal Troubles Escalate as Foreign Law Firms Look to File Lawsuits in US, UK

Trouble for Air India is likely to mount as two international law firms are in talks with the families of the June 12 Ahmedabad plane crash for a potential lawsuit against the Tata Group airline to claim legal rights under international laws. The probable lawsuit by the two foreign law firms, including the United Kingdom-based Keystone Law and the United States-domiciled Wisner Law Firm, would be independent of the initiatives like the compensation and setting up of a trust for victims’ families that the Tata Group’s holding company, Tata Sons, earlier announced, the Economic Times reported. 

“Our international legal group has been discussing this for the past week with the families of the UK crash victims; it is an important part of the aftermath of AI 171,” partner, Keystone Law, James Healy-Pratt said, according to ET. “We are looking carefully at the evidence, as well as considering whether to file proceedings in the US courts against Boeing, together with similar proceedings against Air India in the High Court in London,” Pratt added.

Presently, the law firm’s team is assessing Air India’s key insurer Tata AIG’s early settlement offers to the family members of the crash victims and the Tata Group airline’s liability under the international legal framework to make advance payments to next of kin. Following the finding of the group’s technical probe of the Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crash, the law firms are likely to file lawsuits on behalf of the affected families. 

The law firms are pinning their case on Article 33 of the Montreal Convention, which allows families to pursue claims in jurisdictions like the US or UK if the airline has operations there or if the victims have ties to these countries. The convention is an international treaty that governs airline liability in international air travel.