Qantas has offered to compensate passengers traumatised when QF72 plunged suddenly over Western Australia, seriously injuring several passengers.
In an attempt to appease the passengers Qantas has offered each a $2000 voucher, refund all tickets and pay for any medical expenses following the narrowly averted disaster.
However lawyers still expect the airline to face a flood of compensation claims, even as transport safety officials continue to investigate what caused the A330 to fall suddenly on Tuesday.
"The Civil Aviation (Carriers' Liability) Act provides for compensation for persons suffering injury or death by accident in the course of an international flight," lawyer Phil Gleeson told Fairfax.
"Injured passengers don't necessarily need to prove fault or carelessness on the part of the airline but simply that there was an injury arising from an accident.
"If there's been any aberration in the normal functioning of the aircraft that has caused this, and people have been injured as a result, that would fall, on any commonsense analysis, within the normal definition of the act."
Qantas today confirmed it was discussing paying for passengers medical expenses and "any other needs" they had after the traumatic incident.
A spokeswoman for the airline said it would also refund all the full cost of all travel on their current itineraries and give each passenger a flight voucher worth around $2000.
Qantas protocol will see each compensation claim dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
