Crash report may help families seek payouts

A report indicating that Henan Airlines' safety lapses contributed to a plane crash two years ago could help families of the 44 deceased victims seek compensation.

In the report last month, the team authorised by the State Council to investigate the incident said the crash was not only due to bad decisions by the pilots of flight VD8387 but also because of the substandard safety management by the airline, which is indirectly owned by Air China.

The plane, flying from Harbin, crashed on its approach to Yichun in Heilongjiang province on August 24, 2010. There were 91 passengers and five crew members on board.

The report said Captain Qi Quanjun and his co-pilot insisted on landing the Embraer E-190 aircraft at Yichun Airport even though the plane was engulfed in heavy fog and the runway was not visible.

'The relatives of the victims can now make compensation claims against the airline, the airport or the air traffic control bureau,' said Wang Han, deputy principal of the Northwest University of Politics and Law.

Wang said the amount of these claims could be 'virtually limitless', but would vary from victim to victim, depending on their last incomes.

Shenzhen Airlines, a unit of Air China, was managing Henan Airlines at the time of the 2010 crash, which was the first in nearly six years on the mainland.