A lawyer has asked a US court to hear the liability case of an Australian woman injured on the Singapore Airlines jet that slammed into construction equipment and exploded during takeoff last year at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 83 people.
Such a trial would traditionally be held in courts in Australia, Singapore or Taiwan because a US airline was not involved in the accident and the passenger's final destination was not the US.
But US lawyer Gerald Sterns argued in a legal complaint filed on Wednesday in US District Court in Oakland, California, that the court should hear the case because Singapore Airlines is a member of the 15-carrier Star Alliance consortium, which includes United Airlines, Air Canada, Lufthansa German Airlines and All Nippon Airways.
"If they [Singapore Airlines] want the benefits of the US market, they should be able to be sued there," the Oakland-based attorney said during a recent visit to Taipei.
Star Alliance members allow travelers to accumulate frequent flier miles on one another's flights and they employ a number of "code-sharing" arrangements that let one airline put its own flight number on another carrier's flight and sell some of the seats as its own.
The request for a trial names the Star Alliance, United Airlines and Singapore Airlines as defendants. The plaintiffs are Australians Helen Broadfoot and her husband, David, who was not on the plane but "incurred the loss of his wife's consortium," or companionship, due to her injuries, the complaint said.
Sterns acknowledged he wants to hold the trial in the US, where victims are traditionally awarded much higher compensation than in Singaporean, Taiwanese or Australian courts.
"The United States is the last place in the world Singapore Airlines wants to defend this claim," Sterns said.
Singapore Airlines has apologized for the crash and has offered payments of US$400,000 to relatives of people who died, while saying payments to those who survived would be worked out on a case-by-case basis.
The Los Angeles-bound Boeing 747-400 burst into flames after the pilot tried to take off on the wrong runway and plowed into construction equipment on Oct. 31.
Taiwan investigators have said they will release their report today.
This newspaper reported yesterday that poor communication in the cockpit caused the pilot to miss clear warnings that the plane was on the wrong runway.
Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council declined to comment on the report, based on two unidentified "aviation industry insiders."
Under the Warsaw Convention, an international agreement that sets guidelines for airline liability, a crash victim can sue the airline in the company's principle place of business, in the airline's home base, in the place the victim purchased the ticket or in the final destination of the victim's trip.
A conventional interpretation of the international agreement would not allow the Australians to sue Singapore Airlines in the US. The airline is not based in the US nor is it the company's principle place of business. Also, Australia was the victim's final destination.
Sterns said his Star Alliance argument might be a tough sell to some judges, but he said courts have been willing to hear such cases before because they fear foreign courts will not give a fair hearing.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)