21 yrs on, crash victims’ kin get Rs6 cr

Twenty-one years after the plane crash in the city outskirts on October 19, 1988 in which 127 people died, there is now hope that the families of the victims will receive more compensation than they were paid earlier.

Upholding a lower court judgement, the Gujarat high court on Wednesday directed the Indian Airlines (IA) and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to pay over Rs6 crore as compensation to the families of 34 victims. The families of 34 victims had moved the lower court for more compensation than the Rs2 lakh per victim they were paid.

According to the high court order, IA has to give 90 per cent of the compensation amount while the AAI has to give the rest 10 per cent. The compensation has to be given to the petitioners by December 31, 2009, along with 9 per cent simple interest.

The division bench comprising Justice MS Shah and Justice HN Devani delivered the order on Wednesday. Earlier, on March 24, 2003, the city civil court had directed both the authorities to give the petitioners a total of Rs6 crore as compensation with 6 per cent interest. The civil court, however, had asked IA to pay 70 per cent of the compensation amount and the AAI to pay the rest 30 per cent.

The plane crash had occurred on October 19, 1988 near Kotarpur, 2 km from the Ahmedabad airport.  The Ahmedabad-bound Indian Airlines Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight, IC-113, crashed at around 6:30 am in the fields in Kotarpur while trying to land at Ahmedabad airport.