The Minister of Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda, has stated that it is not the responsibility of the government to provide compensation for the families of those who perished in the Allied Air cargo plane crash at the Kotoka international Airport in June this year.
Rather, he explained that the company that insured the Boeing 727 cargo plane was supposed to appropriately compensate the families of the 10 people who lost their lives in the accident.
The aircraft, which took off from Lagos in Nigeria, was carrying general goods, including textiles, perfume and clothing, from Nigeria to Cote d’Ivoire via Accra when the incident occurred about 7 p.m. on that fateful day in June.
On landing, the aircraft overshot the runway, went through the airport perimeter fence, before crashing into a 207 Benz bus, with registration GE 5471 Z, on the 37 Military Hospital-Burma Camp road, instantly killing all the 10 passengers and the driver on board the bus.
The deceased were identified as Kennedy Hlordzi, 18; Kwame Boadu, 24; George Osei, 33 (the driver); Castro Abuchow, 26; James Yaw Norgbolo, 26; Gideon Ansah Kumi, 19; Mawuli Lavor, 22, and Evans Abanyel Tabanyeng, 34, a graduate student of the University of Ghana.
But Alhaji Dauda told graphic.com.gh Wednesday that the decision to compensate the families did not rest with the government and explained that as pertained in the normal scheme of things, the insurer of a vehicle took financial responsibility for any disaster the vehicle caused in the event of an accident, which equally applied to the Allied Air cargo plane.
He indicated that days after the disaster, officials of the insurance company were in the country to hold meetings with the management of the airline and officials of the Ministry of Transport to commence the process of compensation.
Though the minister declined to further comment on the matter, he gave assurance of the government’s interest in ensuring that the proper thing was done.
Preliminary investigations into the plane crash suggested possible pilot negligence.
A confirmation of the initial findings of the Accident Investigations Bureau (AIB) on the possible causes of the accident will only be known after the black box of the cargo plane has been assessed in the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment