Canadian Court Orders UIA to Compensate Victims' Families

• The Ontario Court confirmed the unconditional liability of UIA for compensation.
• UIA acknowledged the inadequacy of the risk assessment during the military confrontation.
• On board flight PS752, 176 people from several countries were killed.

This is reported by Ukrinform, Interfax Ukraine.

The Appeals Court of Ontario dismissed the appeal of the airline Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) and ordered the company to pay full compensation to the families of the victims of the airline disaster of flight PS752, which occurred on January 8, 2020.

The court stated that UIA failed to prove the absence of its negligence, which led to unconditional liability for compensation according to the Montreal Convention. Meanwhile, while UIA was proving its innocence, the compensation was limited to 235 thousand Canadian dollars per passenger.

The court confirmed the previous ruling, according to which UIA was recognized as negligent due to the absence of a relevant risk assessment during the military confrontation in Iran. It starts from the premise that other airlines, which also operated flights from Tehran at that time, are not an excuse for UIA.

There were 167 passengers and 9 crew members on board the aircraft, all of whom were killed. Among the victims were 11 citizens of Ukraine, 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 10 Swedes, 4 Afghans, and 3 each from Germany and the United Kingdom.

Iran acknowledged that the aircraft was accidentally shot down by military forces. In 2023, an Iranian court convicted ten individuals involved in the disaster, and in 2024, processes began under the ICAO regarding Iran's violations of international norms.

Tags: Aviation