Cash assistance turned down by families of crash victims
Cash assistance turned down by families of crash victims
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Several family members of victims of the recent Mandala air disaster have turned down Rp 300 million (US$30,000) in cash assistance from PT Mandala Airlines, available from Monday, refusing to sign agreements that they fear could affect their capacity to sue U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co.
As of Tuesday, at least six families had turned down the cash payments being made available to each of the 119 victims, even though they satisfied all the administrative requirements. The six families objected to the agreement that had been drafted by Mandala.
The families of the crash victims, who are grouped in different associations, have appointed lawyers to file suits against Boeing. A lawsuit was filed in a Chicago court this week by the Nolan Law Group, representing the family of a Regional Representatives Council member, the late Abdul Halim Harahap, who died in the crash along with his wife.
The chairman of the Mandala Crash Victims Families Association, Waspada Sinulingga, 28, said several clauses in the agreement would restrict the rights of the families, such as the clause stating that a victim's family would not sue anyone after receiving the cash payout.
He said that the families of the victims would lose their rights as a clause in the agreement states that all the family's legal rights would be assigned to Mandala.
"In principle, the families are thankful for the offer of cash payments, but if the agreement that we have to sign is legally binding, we have to question it," Waspada told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
His was among the families of crash victims who were still reluctant to sign the agreement prepared by Mandala as it would thwart the plan to sue Boeing.
"We're not being prejudiced, but it's possible that Boeing will take advantage of the agreement signed by the families of the victims to stop our plan to sue it," said Waspada, who lost his wife in the tragic incident where a Mandala aircraft crashed on Sept. 5 in a densely populated area near Polonia airport in Medan.
When asked for confirmation, the head of the Mandala Airlines representative office in Medan, Det Elvisra, said that it was likely that Boeing would try to take advantage of the agreement. However, he said that the agreement as drafted had no connection with the plans by relatives of crash victims' to sue Boeing.
Det said the agreement was prepared in such a way as to ensure that the relatives of the crash victims would not attempt to sue Mandala Airlines later on.
"Mandala Airlines' responsibilities will be over once the cash payments are made. We have fulfilled the company's obligations related to the crash. We don't want relatives of the crash victims to sue Mandala later on. We have drafted the agreement so as to anticipate this," Det told the Post.
He said that the heirs and successors of the victims who had rejected the cash payments would continue to be given the chance to take the money.
"We call on all the families of the victims that earlier turned down the money to take the cash payouts. We are still waiting for them to do so," Det said.