Malappuram: The Air India Express authorities said the issue stems from baseless reports circulated in some sections of the media that air crash survivors are eligible for a huge compensation as automatic entitlement.
“The compensation is fixed by assessing only the actual damage sustained. Reports that air crash survivors will get a huge compensation with automatic entitlement are baseless,” said an official with Air India Express.
The official said the process to distribute the final compensation is progressing. “We started circulating the claim forms to distribute the final compensation in the first week of October 2020. As on date, out of 165 injured passengers, about 75% have submitted duly filled claim forms to the airline. The law firm engaged by the insurance company has been assessing the claims and offers have been made to around 60 passengers.
Those who have accepted the offer were paid the final compensation within 48 hours of their acceptance of the offer. Nineteen passengers lost their lives in the accident. But only one of their families has submitted the claim form. We are constantly in touch with the remaining families. All of them were contacted at least four times,” the official added.
Meanwhile, a lawyer with a legal firm based in Kozhikode, who helped the little girl get Rs 1.51 crore as compensation, said approaching the court may increase the chances of getting better offers from the airline.
“As per the Montreal Convention, the survivors are eligible for an automatic entitlement of 1,13,100 SDRs (Rs 1.19 crore). But a High Court order related to the Mangaluru air crash compensation grants permission only to distribute compensation as per actual damage. But our prayer to the court was to fix the final compensation considering both the automatic entitlement and the actual damage,” he said.
05/02/21 New Indian Express
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