New Delhi: Families of the victims of the Nepal air crash might miss out on millions in compensation because the government has not passed the air carriers’ liability and insurance draft bill.
Factors that could affect the families receiving compensation include the cause of the crash, the insurance coverage of the airline, and the laws and regulations in place in Nepal.
In 2020, Nepal finalised a draft bill on a separate system of liability for domestic flyers, two years after adopting the Montreal Convention 1999 that makes airlines liable in case of death or injury to passengers.
The long-delayed air carriers’ liability and insurance draft bill has proposed a five-fold increase in compensation for death or injury. As per the planned law, domestic airlines have to pay a minimum compensation of $100,000 for injury or death of a passenger.
Currently, the minimum compensation for airline passenger death on a domestic flight is $20,000.
According to ministry officials, frequent changes of ministers have resulted in the very slow progress of the bill.
A report in the Kathmandu Post said, “The Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry holds the record for the fastest entrances and exits of ministers–seven in three years.”
Nepal, the picturesque hill area, was once again the scene of a horrific air crash on Sunday. A Yeti Airlines passenger plane, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly-opened airport, built with Chinese assistance, in Nepal’s Pokhara. Seventy-two people, including five Indians, on board, are feared to be dead.
According to data from the Aviation Safety Network, this is the country’s third-worst aviation accident.
The plane was 18 minutes into its journey when it lost contact with a control tower in the central city of Pokhara. The aircraft had nearly finished its short journey from Kathmandu, the capital, to Pokhara, Nepal’s second-most populous city and a gateway to the Himalayas.
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