You were hurt on a Lufthansa flight between California and Germany, or on a longer journey routed through Frankfurt or Munich. The treaty that governs it gives you more than most passengers realize, and takes away one thing that nobody warns them about.

Does the Montreal Convention Cover a Lufthansa Flight?

Yes. The treaty governs international carriage between countries that are parties to it, and Germany and the United States are both parties. The test is the itinerary you bought rather than the leg where you were hurt, so a ticket from Los Angeles through Frankfurt to Warsaw is international carriage from the first segment to the last.

What that buys you is widely misread. Below a threshold the treaty sets, Lufthansa is not permitted to argue it was not at fault for an injury caused by an accident on board. Not unlikely to win on fault, not allowed to raise it. Above the threshold it can defend itself by proving it took all reasonable measures, and if it cannot, nothing caps what it owes. The figure in the treaty is a floor under the claim, not a ceiling over it.

Can You Sue Lufthansa in California?

Often you can, and it is worth checking before you accept that the case belongs in Germany. The treaty gives an injured passenger a forum at their principal and permanent residence, provided the airline operates service to or from that place and does business there from premises it or a commercial partner occupies. Several factors decide whether those conditions were met on your trip, including the service the carrier was operating to or from California around that date and the presence it kept in the state. We can review your itinerary and tell you where the claim can be brought. The mechanics, and the circumstances that close that forum, are in suing a foreign airline in California.

The Ownership Answer Has Changed Before

This question separates Lufthansa from several carriers it competes with, and the answer has moved recently enough that it should be checked rather than assumed.

Under US law, an airline a foreign government owns or controls can be treated as an arm of that state. Where that applies, the claim may go to a judge rather than a jury and the airline has to be served through a particular route rather than ordinary means.

Lufthansa is the clearest example of why nobody should carry a fixed answer here. The German government took a stake in the airline during the pandemic recapitalization and later unwound it. An airline's position on this question can therefore differ depending on when your flight was, which is worth a look if your flight was a few years ago and still inside the deadline. For a recent flight the question is the ownership position now, and it is quick to confirm against a current source.

Who You Actually Contracted With

Lufthansa runs one of the deepest transatlantic joint ventures in the business alongside its US and Canadian Star Alliance partners, which means a very large share of its California traffic is sold under a partner's name. You may hold a ticket bought from a US airline, with that airline's flight number on it, for a flight operated by Lufthansa crew on a Lufthansa aircraft. The reverse happens just as often on the domestic connection.

The treaty separates the airline that sold the ticket from the airline that operated the flight and lets a claim proceed against either. That matters, because one of them may be a US company suable here with no foreign forum argument at all. The boarding pass will not resolve it, since the number on it often belongs to the seller. The booking confirmation and its operated-by line will.

What injures passengers

Common Injuries on a Lufthansa Flight, and Which Ones the Treaty Reaches

The California sectors run ten to twelve hours, and Frankfurt and Munich are both large connecting hubs.

Overhead Bin and Falling Baggage

A bin that opens in flight, or a bag coming down during deplaning. External, and the clearest case the treaty handles.

Hot Liquid and the Service Cart

Scalding tea or coffee, or a cart striking a shoulder in the aisle. The cabin is under service for most of the day.

Turbulence

An unbelted passenger thrown from a seat. External. Whether the belt sign was on, and what the crew announced, usually matter.

Jetway and Airstairs Falls

Inside the treaty, because embarking and disembarking are part of the carriage. The jetway and the airstairs both count.

A Fall Inside the Terminal

Outside the treaty. A fall inside a German terminal is a premises claim in Germany, often on a much shorter deadline. Do not let it sit.

Clots, Cardiac Events, and Back Injuries

The hard category. The airline's answer is that your own condition surfaced on an ordinary flight, and it has been difficult to overcome.

Where We Are Not the Right Call

If you live outside California the residence forum tracks your home, not Frankfurt and not your departure airport. If you fell in the Frankfurt or Munich terminal while changing planes, that is a German premises claim against the airport operator and not a treaty claim against the airline, and it is not ours. If two years have run since the landing date the claim is very probably finished, and the months you spent in the airline's customer relations queue did not pause it. And if the loss is a suitcase, the airline's own baggage process handles it inside a notice window counted in days.

What to Do This Week

One. Open the booking confirmation and settle the seller-versus-operator question first. On a carrier this deeply codeshared, everything downstream depends on that answer.

Two. Write out the sequence while you still have it in order, naming the external event and the crew member you reported it to.

Three. Get a medical record created now. A quiet six weeks between the flight and the first appointment is the defense every airline builds.

Four. Put two years from the landing date in your calendar as a hard stop.

If you live in California, something external injured you on the aircraft, and you are inside two years, this is a workable claim and the forum question is the easy part. We evaluate these claims at no cost, and if what happened does not meet the treaty's accident standard you will hear that in the first conversation rather than a year in.