- The Department of Insurance cautioned Orient Thai Airlines this morning that it is fully responsible for compensating victims involved in the crash of Flight OG269 at Phuket, Radio Thailand reported.
News reports have said that Orient Thai has said it carried no insurance on the fatal flight, but promised to compensate Thai victims and their families.
As a yardstick, Silkair settled for USD 200,000 per passenger after their crash (governed by the Warsaw convention), but before the civil lawsuit against them was dismissed (in Singapore).
Parent company Singapore Airlines settled for up to USD 10,000,000 per pax following their Taipei crash.
Orient Thai have offered initial compensation of approx. USD 3,000 and it may not get much better than that. Even if there is valid insurance, the insurers may well prefer to take their chances in the Thai legal system.