-DHAKA/ DAILY STAR
Families of six Bangladeshi passengers who died in the US-Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu have received $51,200 (Tk 43 lakh) each as compensation from the airline’s local insurer.
Sena Kalyan Insurance Company handed over the cheques to the families of Foysal Ahmed, SM Mahmudur Rahman, Nuruzzaman Babu, Prithula Rashid, FH Priok and KHM Shafey at an event held at the auditorium of Sena Kalyan Sangstha in the capital on August 06.
One injured Sheikh Rashed Rubayet received $42,730 (Tk 35.89 lakh).
The compensation amount was determined by the foreign surveyor appointed by the re-insurance companies, said Md Shafique Shamim, managing director of Sena Kalyan Insurance.
On March 12, the 76-seater Bombardier had 71 people, including four crew members, on board when it crashed in a football pitch near Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport.
Fifty people were killed and the rest were injured. Of those killed, 27 were Bangladeshis (including all four crew members), 22 Nepalese and one Chinese.
“We have received compensation for 10 victims, including one injured so far from the foreign re-insurer.”
Of the 10, two of their families are yet to obtain the succession order from the court.
The remaining 17 Bangladeshi victims’ families will get compensation after they receive the succession order.
“The compensation process has been delayed because of legal complexities — the families of the deceased had to obtain succession.”
All the families of the deceased will get at least $50,000 in insurance coverage and the survivors will get up to $1 lakh depending on the severity of injury and the treatment cost, Shamim said.
The deceased Nepalese and Chinese will also get the same amount of compensation. Nepal has not started the process of compensation payment yet.
Among the nine Bangladeshi survivors, most are still receiving treatment. The insurance company has spent $1 million so far on the treatment.
US-Bangla took insurance coverage of $107 million through two local insurance companies: Sena Kalyan Insurance Company and Sadharan Bima Corporation.
Of the sum, $7 million coverage was for the aircraft and $100 million as passenger liabilities.
Of the liability portion, about 1 percent is shared between Sena Kalyan Insurance and Sadharan Bima while the rest are reinsured with foreign insurance companies, including Catlin and Halifax, both subsidiaries of global insurance giant Lloyds, and General Insurance Corporation of India.
Sadharan Bima had already paid the full coverage of $7 million to the airline.
