Kozhikode crash: Air India Express offers final compensation to all injured flyers, victims' kin
New Delhi(PTI): Air India Express said it has made final compensation offers to all 165 passengers, who were injured and the next of kin of 19 flyers who died in the plane crash, in Kerala's Kozhikode district last year.
According to the airline, 80 out of the 165 injured flyers have taken up the offers as on August 6. The airline is awaiting acceptance of the offers from the remaining 85 injured flyers and the next of kin of the 19 deceased passengers.
"We have not received any rejection on the offers made from the injured passengers or the next of kin of the deceased. Also, no legal case has been filed on the offers made," an Air India Express spokesperson told PTI.
The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board, including a six-member crew, overshot the tabletop runway during landing at the Kozhikode airport amid heavy rains on August 7, 2020.
It fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into pieces, killing 19 passengers and the two pilots. A total of 165 passengers and four cabin crew members were injured in the crash.
The spokesperson said the carrier paid the interim compensation to the injured persons and the next of kin of the deceased persons by September 2020.
The interim compensation was Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of deceased passenger of more than 12 years of age, Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased passenger of less than 12 years of age, Rs 2 lakh for critically injured passenger and Rs 50,000 to injured passenger.
Once the interim compensations were given to the victims, the airline gave them the claim forms so that full and final compensation offers for each of them could be calculated, he said.
The spokesperson added that the airline made the full and final compensation offers to each of the injured passengers and the next of kin of the deceased flyers between November 2020 and April 2021.
"The airline started organising one-to-one meetings in Kozhikode to address the concerns or doubts of the injured passengers and the next of kin regarding the offers made. A total of 138 one-on-one meetings have taken place till August 6," he mentioned.
He said the full and final compensation offers have also been made to the four injured cabin crew members and the next of kin of the two deceased pilots, and they have been accepted.
Five days after the plane crash, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) had formed a five-member panel to inquire into the circumstances of the accident. The panel is yet to submit its report.
Captain S S Chahar, former DGCA-designated examiner for pilots of the B737NG aircraft, is the investigator-in-charge in the panel.
He is assisted by operations expert Ved Prakash, senior aircraft maintenance engineer-B737 Mukul Bhardwaj, aviation medicine expert Y S Dahiya and AAIB deputy director Jasbir Singh Larhga.
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'Someone must be held accountable': HC converts civil suit on Goa nightclub tragedy into PIL
Panaji (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Monday converted a civil suit against Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) saying "someone has to be held accountable" for the tragedy in which 25 people were killed.In a stern observation, Goa bench of the High Court of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Ashish Chavan said the local panchayat had "failed to take suo motu cognisance" of the club and had taken "no action despite complaints."
The division bench directed the Goa government to file a detailed reply on the permissions granted to the nightclub.
The High Court, while fixing January 8 as the next date of hearing, pointed out that commercial operations were continuing in the structure despite it having been served a demolition order.
The original petition was filed after the December 6 tragedy by Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar and Sunil Divkar, the owners of the land on which the nightclub was operating.
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Advocate Rohit Bras de Sa, the lawyer representing the petitioner, was made amicus curiae in the matter and has been asked to file a detailed affidavit in the matter.
In their petition, Amonkar and Divkar highlighted "the alarming pattern of statutory violations that have remained inadequately addressed despite multiple complaints, inspections, show-cause notices, and even a demolition order".
They contended that these violations posed "immediate threats to public safety, ecological integrity, and the rule of law in the state of Goa."
Investigations by multiple agencies into the nightclub fire have revealed various irregularities, including lack of permissions to operate the nightclub.
The Goa police arrested five managers and staff members of the club, while co-owners Gaurav Luthra and Saurabh Luthra have been detained in Thailand after they fled the country.
