Plane crashes overseas and the law

What are the legal rights of families who lose loved ones in plane crashes overseas? It's a sad question that has unfortunately come up several times in recent years, the latest with the crash of the Germanwings plane in France.

Victoria Gallanders, travel law expert at Stacks Law Firm, says rights following the death of passengers during international carriage by plane are governed by international conventions.

"Which convention applies depends on the country of departure and destination of the ticket - not the travel leg that the death happened on, but the ticket in its entirety. For the Germanwings crash, most if not all passengers would be covered by the Montreal Convention of 1999."