FlyDubai to make hardship payments to crash victims’ families

A Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employee tries to comfort a relative of the plane crash victims at the Rostov-on-Don airport. FlyDubai has said it will provide hardship payments to victims' faShow more

DUBAI // FlyDubai will provide “hardship payments” of Dh73,400 per passenger to those whose family members were killed in the FZ981 crash on Saturday.

“At present, our priority is to identify and contact the families of those lost in [the] tragic accident and provide immediate support to those affected,” a FlyDubai spokesman said.

The hardship payments are in accordance with the airline’s conditions of carriage: “with the aim of addressing immediate financial needs”.

Experts said payouts sometimes come with a written undertaking that the passenger’s families will not pursue litigation against an airline.

Compensation varied between airlines and was also influenced by the nationality of the passengers and crew.

“Depending on the amount, some families will accept, while others don’t, choosing instead to pursue litigation that may well give them more compensation,” said Ashley Nunes, an industry analyst who conducts policy research in aviation safety and has lectured in Dubai on the challenges facing the air transportation industry.

While initial payments were made over the course of the investigation, it can be some time before the final amount is handed over.

Pointing to the Germanwings crash in March last year, he said: “Many families refused the payments, choosing instead to pursue litigation in the US, where lawsuits yield higher compensation sums compared to Europe.”

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed a passenger jet into the French Alps, killing 149 others.

Lufthansa initially paid €50,000 (Dh207,000) per victim, offered €25,000 more to each family and €10,000 to each immediate relative including parents, children and spouses, according to agency reports.

Many relatives refused the airline’s compensation offer, with lawyers planning a class action suit in the US, arguing that Lubitz was on anti-depressants that he had not declared and should not have been allowed to fly.

Compensation amounts also differ depending on the crash site, the airline and the nationalities of the passengers and crew.

“The reason why nationality matters is because it is used by insurance companies as indicative of lost earning potential,” Dr Nunes said.

“The highest average settlement in the US are in the order of $4.5 million, double that in Europe, and more than six times more the average in Asia. This is because a US national’s earning potential is significantly higher in the US than it is in other parts of the world.”

Russian authorities have begun to compensate victims’ families, the Rostov region’s governor said, according to media reports there. One million rubles (Dh53,519) will be paid to the families of every victim.