Asiana Passengers Sue Boeing

　　A Chinese lawyer is now consulting the families of the three Chinese teenagers killed in the crash landing of the Asiana Airlines flight in San Francisco earlier this month. CRI's Xie Zhao has more.

 

　　A total of 141 Chinese were among the 291 passengers aboard when the Asiana Airlines Flight made a crash landing at the San Francisco International Airport on July 6th.

 

　　Speculations¹ are mounting on whether these Chinese victims can file a law suit in the US, where they are likely to get millions of dollars of compensation, much more than that in their homeland.

 

　　Zhang Qihuai is a lawyer with the Beijing-based Lanpeng Law firm and Secretary General of Beijing Municipal Lawyers Association.

 

　　He says the Chinese victims would be eligible² to sue the airline or Boeing either in China, South Korea or the US.

 

　　"The Montreal Convention has issued regulations and rules regarding international transportation. China, U.S and South Korea are all the contracting parties."

 

　　Zhang is now working as legal consultant³ to the families of the 3 girls who died in the crash, as invited by the local government where the casualties came from.

 

　　Meanwhile Ribbeck Law Chartered, a Chicago law firm has taken steps to sue aircraft manufacturer Boeing, on behalf of 83 passengers, mostly Chinese, from the flight that crash-landed in San Francisco.

 

　　Monica Kelly, is a lawyer from the company.

 

　　She says the company wants to protect evidence as soon as possible.

 

　　"We filed it against Boeing seeking to identify the different component⁴ parts of the manufacturers. For example with the seat belts, that would be another party that is liable. And there all component parts of the plane made by Boeing. Boeing is the one who authorizes⁵ which company needs to make what for the plane."

 

　　Zhang Qihuai highlights it is not important at this point whether it is the airline company or Boeing to be sued, but where the suit is filed.

 

　　He explains that the amount of compensation is mostly decided⁶ by the country's personal income in the previous year.

 

　　"So given the fact that the per capita income in the US is much higher than that in China, the compensation for these 3 girls might be about 100 million yuan in China according to the Chinese law, while the number might exceed ten million U.S dollars if the suit is filed in the US."

 

　　The lawyer adds that currently he is working on a best compensation plan for the victims, and in which country the families of the 3 casualties would file their lawsuits⁷ is yet to be decided.

 

　　For CRI, this is Xie Zhao.

1 speculations   

n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断

参考例句：

• Your speculations were all quite close to the truth. 你的揣测都很接近于事实。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• This possibility gives rise to interesting speculations. 这种可能性引起了有趣的推测。 来自《用法词典》

2 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

3 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

4 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

5 authorizes   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings 'traveler' and 'traveller'. 字典裁定traveler和traveller两种拼法都对。
• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings "honor" and "honour.". 字典裁定 honor 及 honour 两种拼法均可。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句