Airlines Could Sue Over Ash Cloud Shutdown

[MERV]

Should these governments be sue by the airlines?

European airlines could sue government agencies for grounding air traffic due to safety fears over a volcanic ash cloud if they are not compensated for losses by their own countries, some lawyers said.
http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1271862066.html

 

[mweiss]

And yet, if they had let the flights go and some 747 choked on ash and killed 350 people, wouldn't the lawsuits be flying then.

Reasonable people making reasonable safety decisions as part of their official duties should not be held liable, IMO. It's like good samaritan laws.

 

[Xela]

Right. So far as I'm concerned Airlines are a guest of a particular countries airspace, and they're authorized the privilege of flying by the respective transit authorities. If there's a heightened risk of a jet falling out of the sky, I'd hope the airlines respected this themselves and wait for ash to abate, rather than incur the damaged to engines. In fact the government probably saved them money by not allowing them to fly and be the ones responsible when passengers got riled up.