A Legal Appraisal of the Liability of the Actual Air Carrier under Ethiopian Law

Abstract

On September 5, 1961, an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crashed during a flight from Addis Ababa to Asmara. Some people on board the aircraft were dead; some others wounded. Though at the time of the accident the aircraft was chartered by a certain petroleum corporation, claims for personal injury and death were brought against Ethiopian Airlines, the owner and operator of the aircraft. The claimants sought relief under the law of carriage by air. Nevertheless, the High Court of Addis Ababa partly rejected the plea and reasoned that the liability of the “actual” carrier may not necessarily be governed by the law of carriage by air. It is now five decades since the High Court of Addis Ababa held that the liability of the actual carrier would sometimes be established based on laws other than the 1929 Warsaw Convention and/or the Commercial Code. In this particular contribution, the liability of the actual carrier in chartered and similar flights is appraised in light of historical and recent developments.