Relatives of the six Hong Kong travellers killed in the Phnom Penh air crash have been asked to prove their relationship with the victims to claim compensation. And the victims' 'earning capabilities' will be a crucial factor in determining the amount, the airline's insurer said. Negotiations are under way, but payouts might not be available until the crash investigation is completed, which could take a year. A spokesman for Vietnam Airlines in Hong Kong said yesterday relatives had been contacted to discuss compensation. They would have to prove they were eligible for compensation, she said. Last week, the airline's deputy general manager in Hong Kong, Phan Truong Son, promised a maximum of US$150,000 (HK$1.16 million) compensation for each victim. Yesterday, Cambodian aviation investigators admitted they had to pay scavengers to retrieve two of the aircraft's 'black box' flight-data recorders. The Vietnam Airlines Tupolev-134B crashed near Phnom Penh airport in heavy rain last Wednesday. Only two of the 64 passengers on board survived. An airline official was quoted saying the Russian-built aircraft was ill-suited to flying in poor weather. Vietnam Airlines general director Le Duc Tu told the official Tuoi Tre newspaper in Vietnam the Tupolev 'is an old-generation plane which is not perfect and not very suited to bad weather'.
