Cruise Crashes Leave Heirs Wanting

Federal law, cruise ship contract terms, and a key international convention make it to where heirs of individuals who die in fatal plane crashes collect more money as a result of the crash than heirs of individuals who die in fatal cruise liner crashes. The Death on the High Seas Act (a 1920 federal law) states that heirs of an individual killed in international waters can only receive “economic damages”—the monetary support the victim provided to the heirs. 

This law also applied to airplane crashes until it was amended in 2000 following litigation involving the 1996 Trans World Airlines Flight 800 disaster. Flight 800 was scheduled to fly from New York to Rome, but exploded twelve minutes after takeoff from JFK airport, killing all 230 on board. Now, families no longer have a limit when it comes to recovering for economic loss in plane crashes.

The Athens Convention Relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea (The Athens Convention) states that heirs of cruise ship victims cannot collect more than $71,603 for personal injury or death. The Athens Convention applies to cruise liner accidents that involve ships that do not call upon U.S. ports. The U.S. has not adopted the convention, but many other countries have.

For more information on differences between cruise liner and airplane crash payouts, see Deborah L. Jacobs, When Disaster Strikes, Legal System Leaves Cruisers At Sea, Forbes, Jan. 20, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.