Encomium
+Plans to cough out N256 million as compensation
Seven months after the fatal crash of Associated Airline conveying the corpse of Dr. Olusegun Agagu on October 3, 2013, at Lagos, the management of the airline has paid N77 million as compensation to the families of those who lost their lives on Thursday, May 9,2014.
We reliably gathered that the airline paid each of the victims $30,000(N4.8million) as the tranche of compensation in accordance with the international Civil Aviation Organisation Standard. We learnt that the balance of $70,000 (N11.2million) would be paid later to their relatives. Thus, each of the 16 victims would be paid N16 million . And that’s a total of N256 million that the airline would cough out.
The aircraft, which was ferrying the corpse of a former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, to Akure for burial, came down shortly after take-off and 13 out of the 20 people on board died instantly.
The company said in a statement that each of the relations of the 16 victims was paid $30,000 as the first tranche of compensation in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards.
International flights are governed by the Montreal Convention, a global air carrier treaty adopted in 1999 by ICAO, a United Nations agency.
The Montreal Convention of 1999 states that airlines wishing to operate on domestic routes shall adopt the approved liability limits in line with the requirement of ICAO, which states that the airline shall pay compensation, in the case of death, or injury of passengers, of $100,000 per person; destruction, loss or delay of baggage shall be $1,000; and destruction, loss damage or delay of cargo shall be $20 per kilo.
The carrier said in the statement that the balance of $70,000 per victim would be paid as quickly as possible when other matters pertaining to documentation would have been resolved.
The statement said the compensation was paid to the relatives at the airline’s Lagos office, adding that they were individually presented with a “certificate of release and discharge”.
The Chief Operating Officer, Associated Airlines, Mr. Taiwo Raji, stated that there had been lots of insinuations that the carrier was shirking its responsibility to the victims’ families.
He, however, said that the airline had to do a lot of paperwork and had been putting things in place to ensure that the relatives were settled as quickly as possible.
We have been meeting with our insurers but it has been very slow. We are working with them to resolve the whole issue. The insurers and the airline have resolved to pay 30 per cent of what should be paid now, while the 70 per cent balance will also be paid as quickly as possible, Raji said
The plane operated by Associated Airlines which crashed shortly after take-off on October 3, 2013, at the Mafoloku area of Oshodi in Lagos State had 20 passengers which included seven crew members on board,
NAMES ON THE MANIFEST
1. Feyi Agagu ( survivor)
2. Femi Akinsanya (survivor)
3. Akintunde Joseph (survivor)
4. Akeem Akintunde (survivor)
5. Tunji Okusanya
6. Chijioke Duru
7. Kingsley Amaechi
8. Deji Afolabi
9. Mrs. E.O. Alabi
10. Daji Bernard
11. Deji Falae
12. Samson Hassan
13. Olatunji Okusanya
CREW MEMBERS
1. Capt. Yakubu
2. Flight officer Oyinlola
3. Engr. Saroh Elaiye
4. Flight dispatcher Ibrahim
5. Mr. Felix Tatoye
6. Cabin Attendant Owolabi
7. Cabin Attendant Samson
