Record compensation for Mangalore air crash victims?
20 Jul 2011
Thiruvananthapuram: The victims of the May 2010 Mangalore Air India B737-800 air crash, that claimed the lives of 158 people, will now be entitled to an interim compensation of Rs75 lakh each, as per a ruling handed down by the Kerala High Court.
The judgment was delivered by justice PR Ramachandra Menon.
The ruling was made on a petition filed by the Mangalore Air Crash Victims Families Association after Air India offered a victim's father Rs35 lakh as compensation. The association was set up to fight the cause of the victims of the crash of Air India Express Flight IX 812.
It was the association's stand that international norms mandate a minimum compensation of Rs72 lakh.
Air India is expected to compensate the victims' families within one year.
Because of the association's plea, the Kerala HC had to decide whether One hundred thousand (1 lakh) Special Drawing Rights (SDR), roughly Rs72 lakh, was the minimum payment to be made to families of air crash victims.
