Saturday, 15 January 2011

Seoul court orders airline crash payout

via CAAI

Jan 14, 2011

SEOUL - A SEOUL court on Friday ordered a Cambodian airline to pay 3.2 billion won (S$3.6 million) in compensation to the families of passengers killed in a 2007 plane crash.

PMT Air's Antonov An-24 crashed in southern Cambodia in June 2007 on its way from the north-western tourist hub of Siem Reap to the beach resort of Sihanoukville. All 22 people aboard were killed, including 13 tourists from South Korea.

The plane appeared to have hit a mountain in bad weather, according to Nuon Sary, deputy police chief of Cambodia's Kampot province, at the time.

Eleven families of the South Korean victims filed suit in 2008 seeking 4.5 billion won in compensation. They claimed the accident was caused by human error and mechanical defects.

'The company (PMT Air) stopped operating in 2008 and our investigation team found that it was the bad weather that caused the crash,' said Him Sarun, cabinet chief for Cambodia's Secretariat of Civil Aviation.

'The company said that it has asked its insurance company to compensate the victims,' he told AFP. -- AFP

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