The Kerala High Court today directed Air India to pay interim compensation of minimum Rs 75 lakh each to the kin of passengers who had died in an air crash at Mangalore airport while landing last year.
Justice P R Ramachandran Menon passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Abdul Salam and Ramla, parents of 24-year-old B Mohammed Rafi, who was among 158 killed in the crash.
The court also directed Air India to pay the interim compensation in a month’s time.
An Air India Express flight 812 Dubai-Mangalore overshot the runway while landing at the Bajpe Airport, about 20 km from Mangalore, and caught fire after plunging in about 300 metres off a cliff.
Of the 158 passengers, who were killed, 53 were Malayalees, most of them from the northern districts of Kasargode and Kannur.
The deceased’s brothers and sisters were also party to the petition. The Union Government and National Aviation Company (erstwhile Air India) were the respondents in the case.
There were 166 people on board the flight IX-892, piloted by a Serbian national. Operating the Boeing 737-800, the pilot had landed and then tried to take off finding that he was likely to overshoot the runway.
The court held that the carrier was liable to pay no fault liability of one lakh SDR (Special Drawing Rights equal to Rs 75 lakh) to the petitioner.
The petitioners prayed for a direction to settle the entire statutory claims made under the provision of the Air Act 1972 from the respondents on the death of Rafi. They had sought Rs 1.5 crore as compensation.
