US-Bangla plane crash: Families may miss out on fair compensation

Families of the victims of US-Bangla plane crash may miss out on a fair compensation of about Tk 12 million due to delays by Nepal and Bangladesh governments in signing the Montreal Convention, reports the Kathmandu Post.

According to Article 21 of the 1999 convention, in case of death of passengers, the airline is liable to pay up to 100,000 Special Drawing Rights, equivalent to $145,462, for each passenger.

This works out to approximately Tk 12 million at the current exchange rate.

All airlines are covered by the mandatory insurance which pays compensation in case of accidents. It is similar to third-party insurance for motor vehicles.

Passengers and their families must be aware of the compensation they are entitled to in case of an accident.

Since Nepal has signed the Warsaw Convention, the airline is liable to pay more than Tk 2.61 million per passenger.

“There are two different conventions that govern the insurance or compensation amount in case of such accidents,” said Subhash Dixit, head of the claim department of Nepal-based Sagarmatha Insurance.

“Under the Warsaw Convention, a Nepali passenger gets up to $20,000.”

A US-Bangla plane crashed in Kathmandu on Mar 12 with 71 passengers and crew members on board during an ‘abnormal’ landing, killing 49 people.

Among the dead, 22 were Nepalis, 26 Bangladeshis and one Chinese.

The Montreal Convention, formally the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, is a multilateral treaty adopted by a diplomatic meeting of International Civil Aviation Organisation or ICAO member states in 1999.

The provisions of the convention say: “The carrier is liable for damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury of a passenger upon condition only that the accident which caused the death or injury took place on board the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking.”

Bangladesh signed the Montreal Convention on May 28, 1999, but it has not ratified the pact, according to the Kathmandu Post report.

bdnews24.com did not immediately get comments from Bangladesh authorities on the issue.

Nepal has not signed the convention, although the process was initiated in 2010.

Among South Asian countries, India, Pakistan and the Maldives are signatories to the convention, hence, the rules apply to the passengers of these countries and each gets $145,462 in compensation.

“Signing the convention was never a priority for the Nepal government,” said a senior Tourism Ministry official adding that the process was on at a snail’s pace.

“Of course, it will increase the compensation that premium airlines have to pay which is added to the passenger’s ticket price. But it will impact airlines in the short term only,” he said.

“In the long term, it will increase passenger confidence in the aviation industry as airlines become more liable for passenger safety.”