Cite as: 525 U. S. 155 (1999)
Stevens, J., dissenting
accident within the meaning of Article 17, or involved willfulness as a matter of local law. Be that as it may, the parties have insisted that we decide the case on the assumption that it belongs in the sliver about which the treaty is silent.
This case and Saks therefore differ from each of the cases that the Court has cited in footnote 16 of its opinion to emphasize the importance of respecting "the treaty's encompassing preemptive effect," as none of those cases involved personal injury resulting from a nonaccident. Ante, at 175- 176.5 Given the unique character of this and the few other cases in the sliver, it is clear to me that the central purposes of the Convention will not be affected, whether we treat them like accident cases, which preempt local law, or like willful cases, which do not.
The overriding interest in achieving " 'uniformity of rules governing claims arising from international air transportation,' " ante, at 169, will be accommodated in the situations
5 See Gal v. Northern Mountain Helicopters Inc., Dkt. No. 3491834918, 1998 B. C. T. C. Lexis 1351, *2-*3 (July 22, 1998) (involving a helicopter crash and noting "the plaintiff invoked the Warsaw Convention claiming for injuries and loss arising from the accident"); Naval-Torres v. Northwest Airlines Inc., 159 D. L. R. (4th) 67, 74, 76 (1998) (stating that injury resulting from second-hand smoke constitutes an accident and expressly noting but declining to resolve the preemption issue decided today by this Court); Emery Air Freight Corp. v. Nerine Nurseries Ltd., [1997] 3 N. Z. L. R. 723, 727, 728 (involving damage to cargo, therefore covered under Article 18, and thus explicitly preempted under Article 24(1)); Seagate Technology Int'l v. Changi Int'l Airport Servs. Pte Ltd., [1997] 3 S. L. R. 1, 2 (same).
While the Court is correct in its assertion that the British House of Lords assumed the terrorist attack in Sidhu v. British Airways plc, [1997] 1 All E. R. 193, was not an accident, see ante, at 175, I am puzzled why the Lords came to this conclusion. Courts both in this country and in our sister signatories have frequently found a hijacking to be an accident within the meaning of Article 17. See Saks, 470 U. S., at 405; Ayache v. Air-France, 38 Rev. franç. dr. aérien 450, 451 [1984] (T. G. I. Paris, 1st ch.) (France); Air-France v. Consorts Telchner, 39 Rev. franç. dr. aérien 232, 240 [1984] (S. Ct. Israel).
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