A Canadian court has upheld a ruling holding that Ukraine International Airlines is liable for the shootdown of one of its airplanes over Iran in 2020.

The decision, released Monday by the Ontario Court of Appeal, means UIA will have to compensate the families of the passengers who died on Flight 752, which was downed by two missiles fired by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

UIA had appealed a 2024 ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that found the carrier negligent for operating flights out of Tehran during a period of extreme tension between Iran and the U.S. The airline admitted it had a duty of care for the passengers and crew of Flight 752 but argued that its actions did not lead to the occupants’ “damages.”

But the appeals court declined to reverse the earlier ruling and found its reasoning sound. The three-judge panel said UIA bears responsibility for the crash because it did not make a holistic assessment of the increasingly dangerous conditions along Flight 752’s planned route.

“This landmark decision holds significant implications for the aviation industry, emphasizing the need for airlines to exercise caution when operating in or near conflict zones,” said Howie, Sacks & Henry, the law firm representing the victims’ family members. “This judgment sends a clear message that open airspace cannot be presumed safe, urging international airlines to be diligent in their flight operations. This ruling marks the first instance where a court has addressed such an issue, influencing how airlines will approach safety evaluations in conflict areas moving forward.”

The appeals court did not weigh in on the amount owed to victims’ families and said it ruled solely on the integrity of the superior court’s findings.

‘No Error’ in Ruling

Flight 752 was hit by two short-range surface-to-air missiles shortly after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran bound for Kyiv, Ukraine. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, lost altitude and crashed into a field northwest of the airport, killing all 176 people on board.

The shootdown came only days after the U.S. military killed IRGC major general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at U.S. positions in Iraq and mistook Flight 752 as an incoming hostile target. After three days of denials, the Iranian government admitted its responsibility and then-President Hassan Rouhani apologized.

Most of the passengers were Canadian or Iranian citizens traveling from Iran to Canada via Ukraine. Many were students or academics affiliated with Canadian universities.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice laid a portion of the blame on Petro Martynenko, then UIA’s deputy president and director of aviation security. Martynenko was the head of a team in charge of conducting security assessments, and he determined that while the safety threat to Flight 752 was higher than it had been a few days before, it was still acceptable.

Martynenko erred by not gathering as much information about the situation as he could have and failing to alert the airline’s operations department, the superior court ruled.

The appeals court largely concurred.

“Mr. Martynenko failed to do a sufficient search for information in conducting his security risk assessment,” the judges wrote. “He also failed to provide necessary information to the flight commander and UIA’s operational control centre. This prevented other UIA actors from making informed decisions when assessing the best way forward in the unfolding situation, including not alerting them to the need to conduct a hazard identification and safety risk assessment as would have been required to meet the standard of care.”

“I see no error in the trial judge’s assessment that the performance of UIA’s security risk assessment, which led to the decision to allow flight PS752 to take off at 6:12 a.m. without further delay or mitigation measures, fell below the standard of care,” the ruling continued.

The Canadian courts have held Iran primarily responsible for the shootdown of Flight 752. In 2022, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered the Iranian government to pay victims’ families $107 million, plus interest and costs.

The families have no way to enforce that order, however, and the Canadian government has signalled that it will not seize Iranian property and bank accounts in Canada as compensation because of diplomatic immunity. The families attempted to take the issue to the Supreme Court of Canada last year, but it declined to hear their appeal.

Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, and the U.K. have referred the shootdown to the International Court of Justice.