FG gives December deadline to Dana Airlines to pay crash victims

THE Federal Government, yesterday, gave Dana Airline a six-month ultimatum to pay the claims of the families of the victims of the June 3, 2012 plane crash or it will face sanctions by the government.

The Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, who gave the ultimatum at the 2013 Ministerial Platform in Abuja, said that 'Dana is given up to December, if they fail to pay completely, we would have to sanction them'.

She, however, said the airline had paid up to 60 per cent of the claims to the victims' families, but experienced a delay due to double claims that needed to be clarified.

According to her: 'Dana has actually done very well in terms of compensating accident victims. The challenge Dana has is that of multiple claims, which made it difficult to ascertain who should collect.

Oduah further stated that 'until they are able to do that, they will not pay multiple claims and we will continue verifying and re-verifying, to ascertain who should be the next of kin to claim the money. But I know Dana has done up to 60 per cent.

The Minister said the sector had put up some strategies to ensure that air accidents became things of the past in Nigeria.

Oduah said the government was rendering additional assistance to families of victims of air crash, adding that the approval of the Victim Family Insurance Package, VFAP, had been secured from the Nigerian Insurance Commission, NAICOM.