Information Note on the Court’s case-law 198

July 2016

Ioppa v. Ukraine (communicated case) - 73776/14, 973/15, 4407/15 et al.

Article 2

Positive obligations

Article 2-1

Life

Authorities’ failure to close airspace above military conflict zone resulting in incident with the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight: communicated

The applicant is the mother of one of the passengers on the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on 17 July 2014. The aircraft, which was under the control of the Ukrainian air-traffic authority and flying at the authorised height of approximately 10,000 metres, disintegrated and impacted the ground in the eastern part of Ukraine. All 298 persons on board lost their lives. The applicant claims that the Ukrainian authorities’ intentional failure to close the airspace above the military conflict zone resulted in the death of her daughter.

Communicated under Articles 2 (right to life) and 35 § 1 of the Convention (exhaustion of domestic remedies).

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes