Associated Airline Crash Survivor Cries Out For Compensation

Ms. Oluwatoyin Samson, cabin crew with Associated Airlines, who survived the 3 October, 2013 crash of one of the planes operated by company, has decried the treatment meted to her by the management.
NAN recalls that the Embracer 120 aircraft operated by the airline took-off from Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja at 9:32 a.m. and crashed less than a minute after take-off.
The plane was conveying the remains the former governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Agagu to Akure, Ondo state for burial.

  Sixteen persons lost their lives in the incident while four other survived with injuries.

Samson told NAN on Thursday in Lagos in a telephone interview that she fractured her pelvic during the crash. She alleged that the management of the airline abandoned her after she returned from treatment in South Africa.

“I was discharged from surgery unit, Folatend Physiotherapy Practice Hospital in South Africa and moved to orthopedic unit where I spent two weeks.

“The airline management paid me one and half months’ salary arrears and claimed that I was not their staff,” she said.

Reacting to the allegation, Mr Alex Emode, the airline’s spokesperson, who quoted the Geneva Convention, said compensation are only paid to families of the dead or survivors who suffer permanent body injuries.

He said that Samson had been sacked before the incident, adding that she pleaded with the airline’s Chief Operation Officer to be on board the ill-fated flight.

Emode also alleged that Samson left behind some medical devices given to her by the hospital in South Africa.

NAN recalled that the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) earlier this year released the preliminary report of the crash; the full report was yet to be released.

The preliminary report attributed the cause of the crash to human and technical error.