Disgruntled families of the lost souls in the Ethiopian plane crash (ET 409) at the coast of Beirut in January 25 are furiously complaining over the delay in settling insurance claims.
Ethiopian Airlines like other state enterprises is a customer of the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation (EIC). Members of the victims’ families of ET409 told Aviation News Online that though they have been going to the EIC headquarters demanding payments for the insurance claims for the past several months but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. “They have been asking us for different documents that could attest our relation to our beloved ones. We have submitted all the requested documents. But to date they did not pay us a penny,” the families said.
“Officials of the corporation now seem to be fed up of seeing us at their offices. Our heart is broken with anguish. Why are they hurting us again?” they say. “Our repeated attempts to get the response of the EIC were not fruitful.”
Wondesson Eteffa, managing director of EIC, said that he was not aware of the case and advised us to communicate with the public relations department. The public relations department on its part said that it does not have a response at the moment adding that we have to get a response from the Ethiopian Airlines. “Ethiopian is our customer which can comment on the issue,” it said.
In a written response the public relations department of Ethiopian said that the management of Ethiopian was seriously following up the matter. “There are two ways to settle the compensation payments. One mode of payment is through the Ministry of Justice. Some the families have hired foreign lawyers so the country’s law forces us to deal with the foreign national attorneys. It took longer time to gather proper legal documents,” the airline said. “Currently, everything is in order and we hope that the compensation payment will be made soon.”
Some family members have told local media that the management of the airline has been treating them well. “Since the incident occurred they were with us. We think that there is something behind that is an obstacle for them to settle the payments,” they said.
An independent lawyer told Aviation News Online that both the EIC and Ethiopian are trying to avoid controversial claims. Another industry analyst said that they could be waiting for the final results of the accident investigation report, which is expected to be released during the anniversary of the accident.
Ethiopian is constructing a memorial monument for those who perished in the accident at the Addis Ababa Holly Trinity Church. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft that took off from the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport was destroyed when it crashed into the Mediterranean sea, some 3.5 km offshore from the coastal village of Naameh, south of Beirut. Beirut authorities told the international media that after flying for two minutes under a heavy rain and thunder storm being guided by the flight control, the plane lost contact with the control tower. Ninety people on board the plane-82 passengers and eight Ethiopian crew members perished in the accident. Out of the total number of passengers 23 were Ethiopians, 52 Lebanese, 1 Turkish, 1 French, 2 British, 1 Russian, 1 Syrian, 1 Iraqi nationals.