1988 IA crash: AAI,carrier asked to pay compensation

A Mumbai-Ahmedabad IA flight had crashed while landing near Ahmedabad on October 19,1988,killing 127 of the 129 people on board,on the spot. The two survivors were Ashok Agrawal and the then registrar of Gujarat Vidyapith,Vinod Tripathi.

After the crash,the families of 34 victims filed civil suits against IA and AAI in the Ahmedabad City Civil Court holding them responsible for the crash.

In 2003,the court partly allowed the petitioners’ prayers and asked IA and AAI to pay the petitioners a total amount of Rs 6 crore at the annual interest rate of six per cent.

But the petitioners as well as the respondents challenged the lower court’s order in the HC.

Subhash Barot,the lawyer of 29 of the 34 petitioners,said that IA and AAI had claimed that they were not responsible for the crash and thus not liable to pay compensation.

Elsewhere,the 34 petitioners had prayed for increasing the rate of interest from six to nine per cent along with reimbursement of the cost of litigation from IA and AAI.

Barot said: “On Wednesday,the court allowed the petitions of the 34 original petitioners and ordered IA and AAI to pay Rs 6 crore as compensation to the petitioners at the annual interest rate of nine per cent,by December 31,2009. The court has also granted prayer of the petitioners to get the cost of the litigation from IA and AAI.”

Ninety per cent of the compensation amount will have to be paid by IA and the remaining by AAI.