Local insurer compensates families of victims of US-Bangla crash
Families of six more Bangladeshi passengers who died and two who were injured in last March's US-Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu were handed over compensation by the airline's local insurer on October 17.
The six are Umme Salma, Nazia Afrin Chowdhury, Alifuzzaman, Tahira Tanvin Sashi Reza, Pias Roy and Tamara Priyonmmoyee. Each of their families received $51,250 (BDT 43 lakh).
Meanwhile, injured Mehedi Hassan received $27,000 (BDT 22.68 lakh) while Syeda Kamrun Nahar Swarna $15,000 (BDT 12.6 lakh). The compensations were based on the gravity of their injuries.
Major General Firoz Hasan, chairman of Sena Kalyan Insurance Company, handed over the cheques at the Sena Kalyan Sangstha auditorium in the capital.
On March 12, the 76-seater Bombardier of US-Bangla airlines with 71 people and four crew were on board, when it crashed in a football pitch near Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu.
Twenty seven Bangladeshis (including all four crew members), 22 Nepalese and one Chinese died and the rest were injured.
Earlier, seven families of the victims received the compensation cheques worth US$ 50,000 on August 6 and the insurer stated that rest of the families will get the compensation soon.
So far, the insurer paid families of 16 victims BDT 15 crore in total as compensation, Brig Gen (retired) Md Shafique Shamim, CEO of Sena Kalyan Insurance, said at the programme.
Families of the remaining victims will receive their compensation once courts decide which family member to hand it over to, he said.
Most of the nine Bangladeshis who survived are still receiving treatment. The insurance company spent up to BDT 4 crore for one survivor who was critically injured, said the top executive.
US-Bangla took insurance coverage of $107 million from Sena Kalyan and Sadharan Bima Corporation. Of the sum, $7 million was for the aircraft and $100 million as passenger liabilities.
Of the liability portion, about one per cent is shared between Sena Kalyan Insurance and Sadharan Bima Corporation while the rest reinsured with foreign insurance companies, including Catlin and Halifax, both subsidiaries of global insurance giant Lloyds, and the General Insurance Corporation of India.
Earlier, Sadharan Bima Corporation had already paid the full coverage of $7 million to the airline.
