Air India chief Campbell Wilson on Monday said interim compensation has been given to 95 per cent of the families that were affected by the plane crash in June this year.
As many as 260 people, including 241 passengers and crew members, died when a London Gatwick-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft crashed soon after take off from Ahmedabad on June 12. Only one passenger survived. The plane was operating the flight AI171.
At a briefing on Monday, Wilson said 95 per cent of the families have received their interim compensation, and about 70 families have been given the compensatory payment from the AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust.
The interim compensation is Rs 25 lakh for each of the victims and given to their families by the airline, while the compensatory payment is Rs 1 crore for each affected family.
A total of 180 families were affected by the crash. Out of them, the compensatory payment for 70 families has been completed, for 50 families the payment is in process and for the remaining families, the documentation process is yet to be completed.
"Our commitment to those who have had a loss whether they were on ground or in the air will continue for as long as it takes," Wilson said. As many as 19 people who were on the ground lost their lives due to the crash.
Tata Group has set up The AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust, dedicated to the victims of the plane crash.
Post the crash, Wilson said the airline has taken a complete look at all of its practices on what can be done better.
The preliminary report is the only official report that has come out thus far, and there were no recommendations for the airframe manufacturer, engine manufacturer or the aircraft operator. "So in that context, the official investigation to date has not said that anything needs to change," the airline's CEO and MD said.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), in its preliminary report released on July 12, had said the fuel supply to both engines of the plane was cut off within a gap of one second, causing confusion in the cockpit soon after takeoff.
"In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," it had said.
To a query about recent issues faced by Boeing Dreamliners, Wilson said there is no particular concern.
"We are very confident about the aircraft. And I think if you do some research, the RAT deployment was one of 31 events that has happened across the worldwide fleet. It is not anything that is of particular concern," he said.
According to him, the airline wants to make sure that the aircraft are operating as reliably as possible.
"We are in constant contact with all of the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), whether it's aircraft engines, components, to ensure that we don't see any such unusual events," he added.
Currently, the airline has a fleet of 32 Boeing 787s, or Dreamliners.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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