On May 4 a Kenyan Airways airliner took off from the Douala Airport, Cameroon on its scheduled flight to Nairobi. A little later the aircraft crashed into dense forest. Bad weather is making difficult the search and rescue operations. There are unlikely to be any survivors. Of the 114 persons on board the ill-fated flight, 15 were Indians. The ministry of external affairs has intimated an international helpline number so that families can get news about their loved ones.

The crucial question after an accident of a scheduled international civil airline carrier is the extent of compensation to which claimants are entitled for damage/injury/death under international conventions and corresponding national law. At present Indian claimants can claim only as much as is prescribed by the outdated 1972 Carriage by Air Act, which reflects the archaic mandate of carrier liability under the 1929 Warsaw Convention.

The Kenyan Airways crash exhibits a stark reality: India has been tardy, even deliberately negligent, in amending its law to make it passenger friendly. Is this because of pressure from airline companies which want to continue making low pay-outs to passengers who suffer injury/death and damage to baggage/cargo? Is the government protecting the incumbents? Clearly, the present regime is unacceptable for a country with a booming aviation sector or one that boasts of globalisation.

In January 2007 it was reported that the cabinet had decided to amend the 1972 Carriage Air Act suitably, as a preliminary step towards ratifying the 1999 Montreal Convention. This has not happened.

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