Rs6 crore for 1988 crash victims’ kin: Gujarat HC

The Gujarat high court has upheld a lower court judgment asking the erstwhile Indian Airlines (IA) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to disburse a higher compensation of Rs6 crore among families of 34 of the 130 people who died in a plane crash near Ahmedabad in 1988.

The compensation will be paid by December 31 along with a simple interest of 9% calculated since 1989, when the victims’ families first approached the lower court. The HC has ruled that IA will shoulder 90% of the amount while the AAI will pitch in with the remaining 10%.

A Boeing 737, flying in from Mumbai, crashed at Kotarpur, around 2 km from the Ahmedabad airport, in October 1988, killing 130, including five crew members.
The families of 34 victims moved an Ahmedabad civil court in 1989 demanding higher compensation after IA awarded them Rs2 lakh each under the Carriage by Air Act, 1972.  

On March 24, 2003, the civil court directed IA and AAI to disburse Rs6 crore as compensation among the families along with 6% simple interest. In 2004, IA and AAI challenged the decision in the high court, which upheld the civil court ruling on Wednesday.

Indian Airlines merged with Air India in 2007 and the new entity is called the National Aviation Company of India Ltd.