KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 — The families of victims in the Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash could receive just a fraction of the compensation offered to victims in the two Malaysia Airlines disasters this year because Indonesia did not sign the latest international aviation insurance treaty.

US paper the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said Indonesia, unlike Malaysia or Singapore, has not signed the 2003 Montreal Convention, only the older Warsaw Convention 1929 that offers a much lower liability limit of US$8,300 (RM29,011) per victim, compared to the US$170,000 (RM594,200) total liability per passenger covered by airlines under the former treaty.

“The Warsaw pact offers much worse liabilities rights for those passengers compared with Montreal,” Joseph Wheeler, an aviation lawyer from Shine Lawyers based in Brisbane, Australia, was quoted as saying.

“The Warsaw system is acknowledged by all players in international aviation regulation to be antiquated,” he added.

WSJ reported that the Montreal Convention also covers advance payments for transport costs and accommodation for the families of victims after a plane crash. The Warsaw Convention, however, does not require such advance payments.

Bodies and wreckage from Flight QZ8501 were found yesterday in the Java Sea off the coast of Borneo, two days after the passenger plane carrying 162 on board people, including a Malaysian, disappeared en route to Singapore from Surabaya in Indonesia early Sunday morning.

The missing plane is operated by Indonesia AirAsia, an Indonesian carrier owned 49 per cent by the Malaysia-based AirAsia budget airline.

“We are prepared and we will not be running away from any of our obligations,” AirAsia chief executive officer Tony Fernandes was quoted saying in a press conference.

WSJ quoted him as saying AirAsia would move ahead with “some financial assistance”, but he did not specify further.

The AirAsia boss also reportedly said the company would not “hide behind any convention”, which the paper said could be a reference to the Montreal Convention.

WSJ said the Montreal Convention covered the victims in the still-missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that disappeared in March and is presumed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, as well as those in the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was shot down over the restive region of eastern Ukraine in July.

The majority of the 162 passengers and crew on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians.

WSJ said some passengers, however, could still be covered by the Montreal Convention if they had departed from a country that ratified the treaty and the final destination was also a signatory to the treaty.

“It comes down to individual claims. You have a hundred plus passengers—some may have purchased tickets in different countries, some may have been on a leg of a three-leg ticket that was covered by Montreal,” Robert Jensen, chief executive of crisis and disaster management company Kenyon International Emergency Services, was quoted saying.