Delta to Pay $30,000 to Passengers in Crash Landing
Delta Air Lines (DAL) has announced it will offer $30,000 to each passenger on the Minneapolis-to-Toronto flight that crash-landed without any conditions.
The offer was confirmed by a company spokesperson to Yahoo Finance. The number of passengers who have accepted the payment is currently unknown.
As of Thursday morning, all 21 passengers who were hospitalized after the February 17th crash of Delta Flight 4819 have been discharged, according to Delta's website. None of the 76 passengers on board were fatally injured.
The payment offer, which would total $2.3 million if all passengers accept, does not affect passengers' rights to file lawsuits against Delta for the incident.
Delta's offer is in accordance with international treaties, including the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions, governing aviation accidents and compensation for passenger injuries and deaths.
These treaties require airlines to make advance payments to passengers to meet their immediate financial needs.
In the case of injury or death, passengers must receive a payment of at least 16,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) (approximately $20,000), which is an advance against the carrier's ultimate liability, as per Delta's website.
The treaties further state that carriers cannot limit their liability if damages do not exceed 151,880 SDR or approximately $200,000.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian confirmed in an interview with CBS News that the crew of the Embraer-operated flight (a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta) was experienced and responded heroically during the incident.
Investigators have yet to release any new information on the cause of the crash, which occurred on a snow-covered runway. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is leading the investigation, with assistance from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).