Scores of the 129 surviving passengers were injured. The crux of her case was the mental anguish and impairment she sustained. And whether she could be compensated for it rested on a provision of law. International passengers are governed by the Warsaw Convention, and, under a strict interpretation of that treaty, they can be compensated only for physical injuries. They can only be compensated for mental anguish if it is byproduct of a physical injury.
Domestic passengers face no such restriction.
In his ruling, Woods cited two cases in which federal courts differed on the connection required between physical and emotional damage. A North Dakota court ruled in 1994 that an injured passenger could recover for emotional damages even if not severely hurt. In 1996, a New York court would not allow passengers to receive money for being scared when their Air France plane, unable to stop when landing, skidded into the ocean. Those passengers, the court said, suffered minor bruising during the landing and emergency evacuation into the water, and one passenger stepped on a sea urchin. But an attempt to 'make it fair' by denying one person a right to recover because another person, somewhat similarly situated, is unable to recover is a draconian solution.