geosch

To the best of my knowledge, no-one in Iceland sued AB or any of their representatives for any criminal wrongdoing, nor did anyone try to seize or legally impound that aircraft (unlike what the title of this thread implies). The airport is just preventing it from taking off. Right now, AB has more important things to care about, but on the longer run I would assume that the insolvency administrator will be forced to sue the airport administration for damages to protect the interests of the other AB creditors.

Often1

This is a common remedy in admiralty worldwide and that includes aviation in the modern era. In admiralty, debts are collected by "arresting" the property of the debtor for the obvious reason that once it departs, it cannot later be seized.

I suspect that the airport authority carefully researched this issue and came to the conclusion that it has the authority to detain the aircraft. It is unlikely to want to create significant liability.

I have no idea what is owed, but the likelihood is that the leasing company will either pay the invoice and include that amount as yet another unsecured claim against AB (which will never be paid) or at least post a bond for the amount in order to secure the aircraft's release.

I wonder how much is involved. As soon as a carrier runs into economic trouble -- and AB's troubles were well-known -- creditors such as airports, fuel suppliers and the like, all clamp down and demand quick payment. If the authority did not do so here, AB may have accumulated a significant debt.

It is also possible that AB did not file in Iceland because the debt was small enough that it was not worth the cost.

kyanar

They haven't actually 'detained' it per se. They have simply declined to authorise take off, which is the entirety of their legal power in this instance.

Not that I can think of any other way of getting the aircraft out of the airport, mind you.