Posted by Xinhua on
Nigeria's Bellview Airlines said Thursday it will pay 10,000 US dollars each to the family of the 117 victims who died in a plane crash one week ago.
Nigeria's Bellview Airlines said Thursday it will pay 10,000 US dollars each to the family of the 117 victims who died in a plane crash one week ago.
Kayode Odukoya, the airlines' Chief Executive Officer told a news conference that the payment would be made to the family beginning November 8 without recourse to the manifest as an interim compensation.
Describing the crash as the airline's first sad experience since its debut in 1992, Odukoya said that the payment was intended to ease the financial burden of the families of the deceased.
He also said the company had collaborated with its insurers to invite British Blake Emergency Services to provide counseling for the bereaved families and assistance in the recovery of the remains of the victims from the crash site.
On October 22, an Abuja-bound plane operated by Bellview Airlines crashed on the outskirts of Lagos, killing all 117 passengers and crewmen on board. The cause of the crash was still not known.
But Odukoya insisted that the 24-year-old aircraft was still in serviceable condition and would expire in 2009.
"The beacon we have in that aircraft is valid and current, and it is in use all over the world. There is nothing like outdated beacon," Odukoya said.
Bellview, a privately owned Nigerian company, is considered one of the safest of the more than 10 local airlines and has not suffered a crash before.