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more_legal_areas maritimeOriginally enacted in 1920 to provide recovery for marine disaster victims on the High Seas, the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) allowed widows of seamen to recover damages for future earnings. At this time, the Death on the High Seas Act was limited, allowing for recoveries for death limited to the salvage value of the ship. In marine disasters that resulted in no salvage value, victims received no recovery.
Now, the Death on the High Seas Act allows for recovery of not just economic losses but also for the emotional suffering that a death can cause. In March 2000, Congress passed the FAA Reauthorization Bill, which included an amendment to the Death on the High Seas Act. This extension of the Death on the High Seas Act to aviation occurred because aviation is used for traditional maritime activity so death should fall under DOHSA. Instead, the DOHSA amendment caused controversy because of the many laws that applied to airline flights but resulted in limited recoveries in some instances.
If a plane crashed more than three miles from the U.S. coast, for instances, the airline industry was able to use the Death on the High Seas Act to limit damages because one law applied to crashed within one marine league from shore, yet another if the airplane crash was further out to sea. In addition, if the airplane crash occurred on an international flight, the Warsaw Convention applied. The Death on the High Seas Act was only applicable to some airplane crashes, leaving no predictability on much recovery will occur and for what.