KLM held accountable by lawyers, MH17 victims

Injury lawyers say that surviving relatives of the MH17 crash victims could choose to hold KLM accountable for the damage suffered. Since KLM and Malaysia Airlines have a partnership, some passengers with a KLM flight code ended up on the fated Malaysia Airlines plane instead, without knowing it, Trouw reports. The Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was a so-called combination flight, in which passengers who had booked through KLM could also be put on the Malaysia Airlines flight, even though KLM is not the airline's operator. This is regular procedure. Some people, however, are unaware of this. "There are people who only find out at Schiphol that they're not flying with KLM", says personal injury attorney Sander de Lange from SAP Advocaten. KLM is a contractual carrier for Malaysia Airlines. This means that KLM has to pay around €130,000 in damages, whether the carrier is directly responsible for the aircraft or not.