Air France v. Saks

Decided March 4, 1985. Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 83-1785 · 470 U.S. 392 (1985) · Cited 438 times

Holding

Liability under Article 17 arises only if a passenger's injury is caused by an unexpected or unusual event or happening that is external to the passenger, and not where the injury results from the passenger's own internal reaction to the usual, normal, and expected operation of the aircraft, in which case it has not been caused by an accident under Article 17.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Landress v. Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance · 291 U.S. 491 (1934)
• Choctaw Nation v. United States · 318 U.S. 423 (1943)
• Hoover v. Ronwin · 466 U.S. 558 (1984)
• Schlesinger v. Wisconsin · 270 U.S. 230 (1926)
• Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Franklin Mint Corp. · 466 U.S. 243 (1984)
• Maximov v. United States · 373 U.S. 49 (1963)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Olympic Airways v. Husain · 540 U.S. 644 (2004)
• El Al Israel Airlines, Ltd. v. Tsui Yuan Tseng · 525 U.S. 155 (1999)
• Eastern Airlines, Inc. v. Floyd · 499 U.S. 530 (1991)
• Monasky v. Taglieri · 589 U.S. 68 (2020)
• Lozano v. Montoya Alvarez · 572 U.S. 1 (2014)
• Water Splash, Inc. v. Menon · 581 U.S. 271 (2017)
• Medellin v. Texas · 552 U.S. 491 (2008)
• BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina · 572 U.S. 25 (2014)
• Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. Schlunk · 486 U.S. 694 (1988)
• United States v. Alvarez-Machain · 504 U.S. 655 (1992)
• Chan v. Korean Air Lines, Ltd. · 490 U.S. 122 (1989)
• Abbott v. Abbott · 560 U.S. 1 (2010)
• United States v. Stuart · 489 U.S. 353 (1989)
• Arizona v. Navajo Nation · 599 U.S. 555 (2023)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1985). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).