Reacting to complaints from relatives of some of the (deceased) passengers who died in the Mangalore air-crash that the compensation amount —decided under the provisions of the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 — was unequal, civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi on Friday evening held a meeting of top Air India officials at the ministry on
the issue. Under the provisions of the international Montreal Convention that is incorporated into the act, the amount of final compensation is to be worked out in each case separately based on “proof of loss basis”. Sources said as per this principle, persons who were earning or worth a large sum of money could end up getting a higher compensation. According to some estimates, the compensation amount — paid by insurance companies — for relatives of deceased passengers who died in the Mangalore air-crash could even vary between `25 lakh and `2.8 crore.