Dubai-Kerala Air India Express crash: Family donates victim’s gold jewellery

Dubai: Families of the victims of the Dubai-Kozhikode Air India Express (AIE) plane crash on August 7 stand to be compensated in millions of rupees as per the Montreal Convention, an airline official has confirmed.

A spokesperson of Air India Express told Gulf News that the airline has asked the insurers to expedite the final settlement of the compensation as per the Montreal Convention.

“The process has started for that,” P.G. Prageesh, chief of Corporate Communications, AIE, said over phone on Monday, a month after the crash.

Air India Express had announced an interim compensation of Rs1 million (Dh50,454) to the next of kin of the deceased passengers aged 12 years and above, Rs500,000 to passengers below 12 years, Rs200,000 to passengers who were critically injured and Rs50,000 to other passengers injured in the incident.

The airline has completed the process of disbursement of interim compensation to all the injured passengers, Prageesh said.

He said the interim compensation for the families of the deceased will be disbursed within one or two weeks. A total of 21 people including 19 passengers and the pilot and co-pilot had died in the crash.

“So far, 346 pieces of baggage could be identified and using the baggage tags and some passengers’ documents etc. Almost all of them have been delivered to the respective passenger’s houses.”

Her jewellery will shine brighter

The family of one victim has donated the gold jewellery worn by her.

The family of Sahira Banu, 29, who died along with her ten-month-old son Azam Muhammed, has donated the chain, bangles, earrings and finger rings worn by her to a charity organisation that supports the education and marriage of the underprivileged, her husband Muhammed Nijas said.

“Her ornaments were handed over to my brother-in-law during the post mortem itself. But, we took time to go and donate them to the charity organisation because I had to be quarantined for 28 days after I came down from Dubai the next day after the crash,” he said over the phone from Kerala.

He said both his and Sahira’s families felt Sahira would be happy to see the ornaments worn by an underprivileged bride. “I am sure she is also happy that Azam went with her. He would have turned one on the 19th of this month. He was born two months before the due date. He came early and left us early,” the grieving father said about the youngest victim of the crash.

Nijas, an accountant with a fruit and vegetables wholesaler in Dubai, confirmed that the family had received the interim compensation for his elder children Lahan, eight, and Mariyam, four, who survived the crash.

“We also got back almost all items of luggage, including their passports and mobile phones.”