UNITED STATES RATIFIES 1999 MONTREAL CONVENTION, PUTTING TREATY INTO EFFECT

Today the United States deposited with the International Civil Aviation Organization its instrument of ratification of the 1999 Montreal Convention. The convention modernizes the rules governing the liability of airlines to passengers for deaths or injuries attributable to accidents that occur on international journeys.

Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta said, "This is truly an historic occasion. For more than four decades, the United States has led the efforts of the world's aviation community to abolish the woefully inadequate limits on airline liability contained in the Warsaw Convention. The Montreal Convention of 1999 will ensure far more humane treatment of the victims of international airline accidents and their families than is possible under the current system. Thanks to this important new treaty, we will now have an international aviation liability regime appropriate to the second century of flight."

Because the U.S. ratification brings the number of ratifying countries to 30 - the number required to bring the convention into force - a new aviation liability regime will take effect for all ratifying countries 60 days from today.

As additional countries ratify the Montreal Convention, it will ultimately replace the Warsaw Convention of 1929. The rules established under the Warsaw Convention, including artificial limits on airline liability to passengers and on the access of many claimants to courts in their own countries, were written during the airline industry's infancy and have long been viewed as outdated and unjust. Only where a claimant could demonstrate in court that an accident was the result of an airline's "willful misconduct" -- a difficult allegation to prove - was it possible to recover damages in excess of the Warsaw system's prescribed ceilings. In recent years, a great many airlines entered into voluntary agreements to waive the Warsaw limits.

When it enters into force in two months, the new treaty will apply to all round-trip journeys originating in the United States or any other member country, and to all travel between member countries. Where applicable, the convention will:

* Completely eliminate the Warsaw Convention's limits on airlines' liability for death or injury to international passengers.

* Allow lawsuits in cases of passenger deaths or injuries to be brought in the country of the passenger's principal and permanent residence.

* Provide for liability regardless of the carrier's fault up to approximately $139,000, with no limit on recoveries above that amount for proven damages.