Precision Air Tanzania may have to pay at least $129,000 (KSh 15.7 million) for each life lost in a plane crash on Sunday, November 6.
The plane carrying 43 passengers crashed into Lake Victoria as it was approaching the lakeside city of Bukoba killing 19 people.
The aforementioned amount of money is the least that relatives of people killed in the crash can demand if they follow the right compensation procedure.
According to the chairman of the Association of Tanzania Insurers, Khamis Suleiman, relatives of the plane crash victims are entitled to the payment if Tanzania is a signatory of Warsaw Convention.
The same is also applicable if the airline, in this case Precision Air, turns out that it was not negligent.
Suleiman also explained that the amount of money could increase if the victims’ families go to court and demand higher compensation.
“You are talking of an incident where there were some young professionals who had just been employed. Their relatives would be free to request payment in line with their specified reason and damage as may be verified by a competent authority,” he explained.
The survivors of the crash who sustained injuries are also free to claim some compensation if so they wish to.
Domestic flights are governed by Tanzania’s Civil Aviation (Carriage by Air) Regulations, 2008, under the Tanzanian Civil Aviation Act 1977.
This legislation sets a strict liability limit of $120,000 (KSh 14.6 million) per passenger.
As earlier reported on Wok, Precision Air is owned by Tanzanians (58%), Kenya Airways (41%) and other nationals (1%).
The airline was fully owned by a local Tanzanian businessman until 2003 when Kenya Airways acquired 49% shareholding.
It was established in 1993 as a private charter air Transport Company operating a five-seater piper Aztec aircraft.
The company operated from Arusha but it is currently headquartered in Dar es Salaam.
Their main line of business was providing connections to tourists visiting Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Zanzibar Island among many other destinations.
After a while in business and with the growing demand of air transport in Tanzania, Precision Air went into operating scheduled flights from Arusha.
At the time, their fleet of planes were a seven-seater one engine Cessna 207, one seven-seater Cessna 402, two eleven-seater Cessna 404s and the nineteen-seater LET 410.
