Compensation dispute continues (200 words)

Published: 10/9/2000

An aircraft belonging to the Ukrainian carrier Aerosvit, , was arrested by the Greek authorities at Thessaloniki Airport on Thursday 5th October and detained pending the outcome of a court hearing on the 21st November. The hearing being concerned with the compensation offered to the families of the victims of the crash of a leased Yak-42 operated by Aerosvit in Greece in 1997. The Ukrainian Embassy is reported to making efforts to release the Boeing 737 in what has become a long running saga regarding who is responsible for compensation for the relatives of the 68 people who died in the crash.. Lvov Airlines, the operator of the aircraft wet leased to Aerosvit, was ordered by the Greek courts in August 2000, to pay two of the families of crash victims $1.6m. It was therefore accepted that the courts had accepted Aerosvit's plea that it was only the lessor and could not be held responsible for the condition of the aircraft that was found to have malfunctioning navigation equipment. Given recent events however, this does not appear to be the case and also suggests that the Greek courts, notoriously slow with this kind of case, intend to move quickly.

Article ID: 2118