Dana Crash: Relatives To Receive N15.5m Per Victim

The representative of the insurance company handling Dana Airline, Lloyds Underwriters, London, Otunba Yomi Oshikoya, has said families of each of the victims of the ill-fated airplane, a McDonnell Douglas 83 (MD-83), will be paid $100,000 or N15.58 million, at Wednesday’s exchange rate of N155.84 to the US dollar.

He said the payment of compensation would commence within 30 days and assured Nigerians that the Airline would not cheat any beneficiary.

The aircraft crashed into a two-storey building at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos State, killing all 153 passengers on board.
Speaking during a press conference at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja Wednesday, Oshikoya said the relatives would not be treated below the international standard as enshrined in the company’s policy.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) stipulates that each family of victims (passengers) of an air disaster is to be paid $100,000 (N15.58m), that of cabin crew members, $150,000 (N23.4m), while each family of pilots will receive $250,000 (about N38.96m).

He further said the initial sum of $30,000 would be paid within 30 days, adding that the balance of $70,000 would follow thereafter.

“By international standards, you are required to pay the sum of $30,000 to the victims as initial payment. By law, the substantive amount is $100,000 and I want to assure you that Lloyds will approach this as per international standard,” he said.

On the ground claims, he said the underwriters had contacted a surveyor in Nigeria to visit the site and evaluate the building and make a comprehensible report available to it.

“It is on the basis of the evaluation that compensation would be worked out,” he added.

Source- THISDAY