What’s new: Eleven insurers have paid out 14.85 million yuan ($2.34 million) to families of the victims of the China Eastern Airlines plane crash last week, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said Wednesday.
Separately, the property and casualty insurance units of the People’s Insurance Co. (Group) of China Ltd. (PICC), Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. Ltd. and China Life Insurance (Group) Co. have also prepaid 116 million yuan ($18.2 million) to Eastern Airlines for the loss of the aircraft and their compensations to victim families, the CBIRC said.
The CBIRC together with insurance companies have responded quickly to insurance claims related to the accident, the regulator said.
For families of plane crash victims, there are two ways of seeking compensation. The first is through commercial insurance purchased by the victims, such as aviation accident insurance. The second is compensation from airlines.
In China, airlines should offer each passenger no more than 400,000 yuan when a flight accident happens as stated in regulations released in 2006. An industry researcher told Caixin that compensation for dead or injured passengers in the crash is not likely to be limited to 400,000 yuan.
The background: A Boeing 737-800 operated by Eastern Airlines went down in the southern region of Guangxi March 21 while flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, China’s fifth-largest city. All 132 passengers and crew on board perished in the tragedy, the nation’s first commercial jetliner crash in more than a decade.
The plane plummeted from its cruising altitude of 8,840 meters, leveled off once and then appeared to fall straight down. Chinese authorities have recovered the jet’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Reasons for the crash are still under investigation.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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