Court orders compensation for families of Dana Air crash victims’ families

THE Federal High Court, Lagos has ruled that Dana Air ought to have paid the statutory advance payment of US$30,000 to the families of the victims of its plane crash within 30 days of the accident as stipulated in Section 48(3) of the NCAA 2006.

Justice Mohammed Idris delivered the ruling on an application brought by 23 families of the victims of the Dana Airlines Limited plane crash which occured in 2012 in Lagos.

Justice Idris, agreed with and upheld the submissions of the Plaintiffs/Applicants’ Solicitors on the four categories of applications before him granting all the reliefs sought in the applications.

The applications were filed by a consortium of lawyers known as the Aviation Attorney Group led by Oba Nsugbe, QC, SAN; Dr. B. A. M. Ajibade, SAN and Ajibola Dalley and their foreign colleagues Jim Morris and Rebecca Smith – both of Irwin Mitchell Solicitors in the United Kingdom.

The team also included, P. O. Olalere and Lekan Ikuomola.

The Aviation Attorney Group was formed to pursue, across jurisdictions, the statutory compensation due to the families/beneficiaries of the Estates of the unfortunate victims of the Dana Air crash.

The Court found in favour of the Applicants on all the issues raised and ordered the reliefs as prayed, thus establishing significant precedents in this area of law.