Insurance claims emanating from the crashed Boeing 737 Max jet operated by Ethiopian Airlines, has been estimated at between $50 million to $60 million. The crash killed all 157 passengers on board, including two Nigerians.
According to Reuters, global insurance brokerage and risk management firm, Willis Towers Watson, is the lead insurer for Ethiopian Airline. The leading insurance provider — Chubb will serve as the lead underwriter.
Initial compensations for the families of the 157 victims are expected to be within the range of $25 million. However, the amount is expected to increase as litigation mount against both Ethiopian Airlines and Boeing.
Note that while the initial insurance payments is expected to come from Ethiopian Airlines’ insurers, they could try to recoup their money from Boeing’s insurers. But this is dependent on their ability to prove that the aircraft was faulty.
In the meantime, the insured value of the downed plane alone is pegged at $50 million, industry sources said.
A catastrophic crash: As Nairametrics reported, the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed early Sunday morning on its way to Kenya, from Ethiopia. Everybody onboard the flight died.
Prior to the crash, the pilot was said to have reported some technical difficulties minutes after takeoff, for which he was cleared to return to the airport. Unfortunately, the plane never made it back to the Bole International Airport.
Nigerian died on that flight: Nigerians involved in the crash were popular Nigerian-born Canadian professor and writer, Pius Adesanmi, and Ambassador Abiodun Bashua, a former Joint Special Representative for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, Sudan.
In the meantime, Air Peace is not cancelling its Boeing 737-MAX 800 order
Despite ban by various countries on the Boeing 737-MAX 800 jets, Nigeria’s airline operator, Air Peace has stated that it has no intention to cancel the order the it made earlier last year.
Air Peace and the American aircraft manufacturer, had on September 13, 2018 signed agreement for the delivery of 10 brand new B737 MAX 800 aircraft. And following safety concerns originating from the recent crash, a spokesman for the company, Mr Chris Iwarah, said it is rather premature to start considering cancelling the orders.
“At this moment, it is premature to begin to talk about things and conclusions that have not been put in the public domain.
“Investigations into the crashes involving B737Max 800 are ongoing. So, it will not be fair at this time to begin to make definite comments on those issues.
“We are still in the domain of investigation. But, we want to assure the public that we are following the development very closely.”