Aviation
12KBW’s specialist aviation team acts for and against airlines, tour operators, airport and aircraft owners and aircraft maintenance, lease and ground handling companies and aircraft manufacturers. We also act in the insurance and reinsurance markets.
Our barristers are experienced in acting in civil claims, inquests and arbitration proceedings across a broad range of aviation matters including in personal injury, insurance, product liability, employment, commercial and regulatory matters.
We are experts in dealing with jurisdiction and choice of laws. We regularly act in cases involving the Brussels Regulations, Lugano Convention and service out of the jurisdiction Civil Procedure Rules, as well as in cases involving applicable law under the Rome I and Rome II Regulations. Our barristers advise on the application of foreign law including in relation to limitation and the assessment and quantification of loss. 12KBW works with a well established network of foreign lawyers who we are able to recommend to advise on foreign law.
Our team also regularly act in claims brought under the Montreal and Warsaw Conventions, the Package Travel Regulations 1992, in delayed and denied boarding, baggage and goods in transit claims and associated recovery actions by tour operators.
The strength of our personal injury and product liability aviation experience is reflected in the leading role 12KBW barristers have taken in the aerotoxicity litigation (arising from the ingestion of organophosphate and other chemicals). Other cases include acting in:
- Claims arising from the Shoreham Airshow crash
- Qantas passengers’ class action following uncontained engine failure on an A380
Our commercial, employment and insurance experience includes acting in:
- The London war risks market, in private arbitration proceedings in respect of losses in Libya, Chad and Afghanistan
- Noble Caledonia v Air Niugini a contribution claim for consequential damage arising from a delayed flight.
Our barristers have an enviable depth of experience in military aviation, having acted in the most high profile cases, including:
- Nimrod XV230 aircraft crash
- 9A Lynx helicopter crash
- Maydown (Gazelle helicopter crash, vortex ring and REME misstatement) Inquest
- Moray Firth GR4 Tornado mid-air collision
