DYFI rally for Justice to Air Crash Victims’ Families

Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) lead a protest rally to Air India's office at Lalbaugh in Mangalore on Wednesday, protesting against insurers paying a meagre settlement to the families of the victims of Air India Express accident of May 22.

DYFI demanded the intervention of Union civil aviation ministry in this issue to restrain the Air India Management and the insurance representatives in unduly influencing the victims' families. The protest demonstration was inaugurated by CPIM central committee member Com. P Karunakaran. Addressing the protestors, he said that the irony is that most of the people traveled by the ill-fated plane belong to middle/low income group and majority of them were the only bread winners for their families living in India.Though the Union Civil Aviation Minister Mr Praful Patel and Air India management had announced an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakhs each to the family of the deceased. Further the Union minister declared that the family of deceased would get a final compensation up to Rs 76 lakhs each. But now the officials have decided to give the compensation based on the income of the deceased, which means the insurance companies have to pay only a little amount as compensation as most of the families are from low income group which is injustice, he added.

DYFI Kerala state secretary Com TV Rajesh spoke on the occassion, said the recent activities of AI management and the insurance consortium was disappointing, `alleging' that the insurers with knowledge and connivance of the AI Management have approached the families of the victims and are negotiating a meagre settlement. He claimed that they are persuading the victims to accept a settlement which is based on the income of the deceased, which means the insurance companies have to pay only a little amount as compensation as most of the families are from a low income group.

Rajesh said the irony is that most of the people travelled by the ill-fated plane belonged to middle/low income group and majority of them were the only breadwinners for their families living in India. He further claimed that the Article 21 of Montreal Convention eliminates all arbitrary limits on air carrier liability with respect to accident victims. The carrier may avoid liability for the full amount of damages only if it proves that it was not negligent or that a third party was solely responsible for the damages.

As a further benefit for accident victims, Article 21 holds carriers strictly liable for the first 100,000 SDR (approximately Rs 70 lakh) of proven damages for each passenger, i.e., the carrier may not avoid liability for this amount, even if the accident was caused without any fault or negligence of the carrier.

He said the issue of classifying passengers according to the position and income for assessing the compensation cannot be applied in an international flight because an international flight will have passengers of different nationalities, working in different countries. The difference in currency value in each country will be a hindrance for any assessment made on the value of the income, quoting an example of how a driver working in Dubai earns Rs 70,000 per month in Dubai and a clerk in India who earns only Rs 8,000 per month, hence compensation should be paid according to incomes. "The insurance authorities cannot claim that the clerk in India would get a low compensation as his salary in India is less," he said. Rajesh said this act of AI and the insurance consortium are illegal and against the law.

The DYFI has demanded for the intervention of Union civil aviation ministry in this issue to restrain AI management and the insurance representatives in unduly influencing the innocent victims who are already in a state of mental depression for the loss of their beloved ones. Rajesh said the Union civil aviation ministry should also ensure that the dependents of the victims are adequately compensated.

CPIM leader Com B Madhava also spoke on the occassion.