$350 000 per crash family

2004-01-09 11:52

Cairo - The state-run insurers of Egypt's Flash Airlines pledged on Thursday to pay $350 000 dollars in compensation to each of the families of the 148 people who died when one of its planes crashed into the Red Sea last week.

Al-Sharq insurance company, in a statement carried by Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency, said it "pledges to compensate the families of the victims following the end of the investigation and technical inspections."

It said it would cover all the passengers and crew members, as well as their luggage, in line with regulations concerning civil responsibility.

Al-Sharq said it would send $350 000 to the heirs of each victim of the Boeing 737 that crashed into the Red Sea on January 3 just off Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 134 French people, one other passenger and the 13 Egyptian crew members.

Civil responsibility and plane damages are covered by Al-Sharq, with the risk spread among the Egyptian Reinsurance Company and XL Brockbank, a group of Lloyd's of London.

"It's Flash Airlines which will be responsible. We're talking about objective responsibility, full rights. They can not raise any kind of defence," according to Thibault de Mallmann, legal affairs director of the La Reunion Aerienne group.

He estimated that the legal heirs should receive advances "in a very short time" of about 15,000 euros per passenger, but "in the current case, that risks being longer because entire families were wiped out."

The sums will only be released when state authorities register the official certificate of death for the victims, who are currently officially listed as missing.

- AFP