Consequent to the refusal of Dana Airline to pay the statutory $30,000 compensation to the families of the ill-fated Dana Air crash, about 40 families of the victims have petitioned the Senate Committee on Aviation to wade into the matter.
According to the enraged families, Dana Airlines’ refusal to compensate the families was as a result of the wicked intrigues of the airline and its representatives.
They also alleged that the names of two of the agrieved families, Ahmad Dukawa and Femi Shobowale, were illegally listed by Dana Airlines, its local and international insurers, Prestige Assurance Plc and Pritchard Insurance/Lloyd’s of London as having been paid $30,000 each.
Addressing journalists in Lagos on Thursday, through their legal practitioners and consultants, M.O Awoniyi & Co, the mourning families said that the management of Dana Airlines deliberately refused to pay for the compensation.
One of the lawyers representing the families of the victims, Bunmi Awoyemi, claimed that all efforts to get the claims paid were fruitless.
Awoyemi said: “We have tried severally and in vain, via written and oral communication(s) to get the Airline and its insurer’s solicitors, to pay our clients their monies.
“They have only through, deceitful and deliberate measures prevented our clients from meeting their immediate and economic needs occasioned by the death of their loved ones in the plane crash. The name of two of our clients Ahmad Dukawa and Femi Shobowale were fraudulently listed by Dana Airlines, its local and international insurers, Prestige Assurance Plc and Pritchard Insurance/Lloyd’s of London as having been paid $30,000 each,” Awoyemi added.
It could be recalled that Section 48(3) of the Civil Aviation Act provides: “In any case of aircraft accident resulting in death or injury of passengers, the carrier shall make advance payments of at least US $30,000 within 30 days from the date of such accident, to the natural person or such natural persons who are entitled to claim compensation in order to meet the immediate economic needs of such persons and such advance payments shall not constitute recognition of liability and may be offset against any amounts subsequently paid as damages by the carrier.”
It would be recalled that a Dana Air plane with 153 passengers and crew on board crashed in a residential area in the Iju-Ishaga Alagbado area of Lagos on Sunday, June 3.
The McDonnel Douglas (MD) 82 aircraft coming from Abuja rammed a building, about two minutes to “emergency” landing at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, killing all 153 persons on board.
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