Plane crash: Dana Air, others receive N.4bn claims from insurance firms
As part of fulfilling their obligations to policyholders, 12 underwriters and one reinsurance firm have paid over N400 million as claims for aircraft accidents including that of ill-fated Dana, which claimed 153 lives.
Among the 12 are underwriters, who acted as co-insurers of the ill-fated 2012 Dana Air crash in Lagos.
The lead insurer, Prestige Assurance, had earlier revealed that the victims' families got over N800 million within a few months after the disaster. The claims report is the latest released via a document obtained by New Telegraph from the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA).
According to the report, some other airline operators, whose aircraft were damaged for one reason or the other, also benefitted from the payment. This also includes the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
The breakdown revealed that of the insurance firms involved, AIICO Insurance Plc paid the highest claims of over N115 million. The beneficiaries include Kings Airlines and Travels Limited (N5.23 million); loss of licence of captain (N38.40 million); Dana Airlines Limited (N13.50 million); Barbedos Group Limited (N20.22 million); OAS Services Limited (N17.03 million) and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which received N21.70 million for its damaged Hawker aircraft. AIICO was trailed in the compensation closely by Sterling Assurance, which coughed up N94.65 million for the same purpose.
According to the details, the underwriter also paid over N87 million to Dana and another N3.98 million to Bristow Helicopters. In the same vein, Royal Exchange paid about N48.07 million as claims to Dana and OAS. Other insurers involved in the payments are Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (N17.12 million); Custodian and Allied (N24. 75 million); Ensure (N7.50 million) and Great Nigeria Insurance (N4.72 million).
The list also includes Guinea Insurance (N7.04 million); Mutual Benefits (N17.12 million); Niger (N7.69 million); Staco (N4.37 million) and Standard Alliance (N14.35 million). Continental Reinsurance Plc was also involved with payment of N127.27 million. Apart from the current compilation by the NIA, an earlier report had indicated that some families of the ill-fated Dana crash got N821 million as revealed by the lead underwriter, Prestige Assurance Plc. Managing Director of the underwriting firm, Mr. Anand Mittal, said as of August 11, 2014, the insurers had made advance payments to 106 passengers.
He explained that two out of the 68, who collected the final claims, were relatives of the ground victims, while the rest were relatives of the passengers aboard the aircraft. Dana Air Flight 992, which crashed on Sunday 3, 2012, was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Abuja to Lagos.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft crashed into a furniture works and printing press building in the Iju-Ishaga neighbourhood of Lagos. The crash resulted in the deaths of all 153 people on board and 10 more on the ground.
So far, it is reportedly the deadliest aviation disaster involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, and the second-deadliest involving an MD-80 series aircraft, behind Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308. It is also the second-deadliest aircraft crash on Nigerian soil, behind the Kano air disaster of 1973.