Cost of liabilities could reach US$1 billion

[WASHINGTON] In the aftermath of the plane crash that killed all 298 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine last week, the victims' families and countries are likely to seek millions of dollars in reparations. Initial mandatory payouts are virtually guaranteed to approach US$50 million, according to estimates from experts.

As part of the Montreal Convention, which governs the rights of passengers in international travel, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will automatically be responsible for about US$150,000 per passenger, said Floyd Wisner, a lawyer whose focus is aviation crashes. "So long as each person is believed to have suffered more than US$150,000 in damages, that will hold, and it almost certainly will," he said.

But those are hardly the only costs inherent in such a disaster. The victims' home countries are likely to demand successive payouts for the economic and non- economic costs of their lives. Those vary considerably by nation.