Malaysia Airlines’ insurer has begun paying the families of passengers on missing Flight MH370 US$50,000 each in initial compensation three months after the jet disappeared, a government official said yesterday.
So far, six Malaysian families and one Chinese family have received the advance payment, to which all the families of the 239 passengers and crew onboard are entitled, Malaysian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hamzah Zainudin said.
Talks with 40 more Chinese families are underway to ascertain they are the rightful claimants, said Hamzah, who heads a committee to support the missing passengers’ next of kin.
The Boeing 777 inexplicably disappeared on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with no sign of wreckage found despite an extensive search off western Australia.
Full payment to the families — who can claim up to more than three times the amount of the initial payout — would be made later, Hamzah said.
The government was not yet prepared to declare the plane lost, he added.
“When we talk about the full payment, we have to wait until we announce the issue on the tragedy MH370 is over ... whether the plane is found, whether we announce the plane is lost,” he said.
Passengers’ families can claim up to about US$175,000 under International Civil Aviation Organization rules, regardless of fault, in a plane crash.
Malaysia Airlines’ insurer, a consortium led by German firm Allianz, is making the payments.
Malaysia and Australia have vowed to keep looking for the plane, but some angry relatives of those on board have accused Kuala Lumpur and the carrier of reacting too slowly and covering up information.
A handful of families on Sunday launched an online campaign to raise US$5 million to reward a “whistleblower” who comes forward with information to help find the plane. So far, they have raised more than US$25,000.
“The government has been very transparent from day one,” Hamzah said yesterday.
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