Compensation to families of the 239 passengers of the Malaysian Airlines flight that is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean may not face any legal hurdle even if the wreckage of the aircraft remains untraceable, insurance experts said today.
As far as compensation to the airline is concerned, they said it would depend on the terms of the contract it had with insurance companies. But they added insurance firms have paid claim in most such previous instances.
"Individual liabilities are covered under international conventions. So, there is no difficulty in paying such claims if some official document regarding loss of lives are provided to insurance companies," Tata AIG General Insurance Chief Executive Officer K K Mishra told PTI here.
He, however, added payment of claims of Malaysian Airlines by insurers would depend on the reinsurance arrangement and fine print in the contract.
Though the flight MH370 with 239 passengers, including five Indians, is said to have crashed into the ocean, any debris of the jet, a Boeing, is yet to be traced, which can be taken as conclusive evidence for paying insurance claims.
An official of General Insurance Council said there would be no issue in paying claims either to the families or to the airline as insurers have paid claims in similar instances in the past.
However, another industry official said the 'cause of loss' would be a critical parameter for paying out claims.
"It will depend on the 'cause of loss' of the flight. However, it is always the prerogative of the insurers to pay out claims and they can do so without any conclusive evidence (of the wreckage) by considering it as a tragedy," Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Axa General Insurance Amarnath Ananthanarayanan said.
Indian companies have paid individual claims during natural calamities and terror attacks without any hassle, he maintained.
