THE families of the victims in the Pan Am crash in Lockerbie eight years ago are still waiting for their money.
Not a single claimant has received a penny of compensation because of the extreme difficulty of proving wilful misconduct on the part of the airline as required by the agreements on aircraft liability.
The chances of this unfortunate situation occurring again are now much less likely, if not impossible, due to the signing of a new streamlined agreement on passenger liability.
The inter-carrier agreement on passenger liability, as brokered by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and signed by 12 airlines yesterday, makes proving negligence or wilful misconduct unnecessary. It does away with the upper limits on how much compensation must be paid.
Lorne Clark, the IATA's general counsel and corporate secretary, says if the new agreement had been in place at the time of the Lockerbie crash, all of the families would have been paid within two years.
For the airlines, the agreement will likely see them paying much higher compensation than previously, although, to be fair, many already did.
A number adhere to the original limit of US$10,000 as established in 1929 - a 'woefully inadequate' figure, according to Mr Clark.
