Type Study on Grounding Liability of Civil Aircraft: Taking Grounded Events Caused by Ethiopian Air Crash in 2019 as Starting Point

The grounding of civil aircraft mainly attributes to aviation product defects. The categories of grounding can be divided into three major forms based on the following reasons: government's safety supervision, choices made by airlines considering industry self-regulation, and the prohibition of countries concerned for airlines' unconformity of their mandatory standards. Different types of grounding are subject to different subjects and bases of liability. The grounding of civil aircraft would definitely have significant influence on China's emergency response mechanism and the improvement of the aviation legal system. Therefore, China should strengthen airworthiness management, strictly standardize airworthiness standards and the procedures of airworthiness certification, initiate and establish the system of aviation safety supervision, enhance the risk handling capacities both at national, corporate and all other levels, formulate risk prevention and control plans, improve the airworthiness regulation system and the grounding liability insurance.