Families torn apart by air disasters are being left in limbo for years, a new report has found, as gaps in international protocols delay compensation and closure. The study, published by the Air Disaster Response Network, reveals that victims’ relatives often wait more than 12 months for basic information, let alone financial support.
Take the case of the 2023 crash in Indonesia that claimed 189 lives. Widow Siti Rahmawati, a 34-year-old mother of two from Jakarta, still doesn’t know why her husband’s plane went down. “I can’t move on. Every month I call the airline, and every month they say ‘pending investigation’,” she told reporters. “It’s a year of grief and waiting.”
The report highlights a patchwork of national laws and a lack of binding international standards for victim assistance. While the Montreal Convention sets liability limits for airlines, it does not mandate timelines for information sharing or interim payments. As a result, families in poorer nations suffer most. In the 2022 Ethiopian Airlines crash, Nigerian families received compensation only after a 14-month legal battle.
“The system is designed for the airline, not the victim,” said labour lawyer Dr. Anjali Mehta, who contributed to the report. “We see rich countries resolving claims within months while developing nations are left to fight for scraps. This is a moral failure.”
The report calls for a new International Air Disaster Victims’ Charter, including mandatory interim payments within 90 days, psychiatric support, and a single global registry of crash data. It also criticises the opacity of accident investigations. In the 2021 Nepal crash, the final report was withheld for 18 months amid political pressure.
Airlines argue that complex investigations take time and that some cases, like the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, defy quick resolution. But the report’s authors counter that transparency and compassion are not incompatible with thorough probes.
For victims’ families, the cost is not just financial. “You feel invisible. The company sends you a letter but never a person,” said Thomas Mwangi, whose brother died in the 2023 Kenya Airways crash. “We need to see their faces, to be heard.”
The report’s release coincides with a United Nations working group on aviation liability, which will meet in Geneva next month. Campaigners hope it will spur action. But for now, for thousands of families, the wait continues.
