Talk:Warsaw Convention
Add topic | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
 | It is requested that one or more world maps be included in this article to improve its quality. |
More precision for the personal damage compensation
[edit]From my memory, in 1955 (I was 15, living in Dakar we traveled every 2-3 years by air to/from France), the ICAO Warsaw Convention stated (probably in its The Hague session) that, to avoid the victim families waiting for decades for damages, a passenger killed while transported (or his family) would receive from the carrier, immediately, no conditions or questions, and no matter the causes or circumstances or liabilities, an amount of $75,000, NOT waiting for the eventual litigations, e.g. between the carrier and its providers or other companies or instances.
This amount would be worth, I think, around $1M in 2025 ($75,000 + 3.8% per year over 70 years).
Yet the present article reads:
« Chapter V – General and Final Provisions - ...
In particular, the Warsaw Convention: - ...
Limits a carrier's liability to at most:
- 250,000 Francs or 16,600 special drawing rights (SDR) for personal injury; - ... »
Such amount, given without knowing the reference year, doesn't actually tell the importance this sum of money once had, or now has.
If 260,000 francs in 1955 (franc Poincaré, that suffered multiple heavy devaluations in 1928-1960), it would be, in nominal values, 2600 Nouveaux francs (of 1960), or 396.37 EUR (of 1999).
If 260,000 francs in (e.g.) 1970, it would be, in nominal, 39,626.74 EUR. Not to mention the real values are, depending on the year involved, widely different from the nominal.
Even more importantly, from my memory, the 1955 rule was intended to make the payment immediate and NOT subject to discussion. The current article phrase « Limits a carrier's liability to at most », if true, and if my memory of 1955 is accurate enough, would defeat the very purpose of the 1955 rule.
Thanks in advance to anyone who could bring the precision needed.
Note. Personally, after suffering as everyone in ~1995-2020 the writing by tiers inside my PC (under a pastry name, "cookies"), I refuse, which is my right, to GIVE THEM THE AUTHORIZATION now requested, which, given the fine prints in the now standard "cookie walls" of most sites, prevents me from visiting a lot of sites, including https://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/7300_cons.pdf Versailles, Wed 08 Oct 2025 15:07:40 +0200, edited (CRLF's, italics, a few words) Thu 09 oct 00:06:00 Michel Merlin (talk) 22:05, 8 October 2025 (UTC)