16 July 2009, 21:10
Armenian authorities to pay 4000 US dollars to every family of perished aircraft passengers
The government of Armenia will provide compensations to the families of the victims of the catastrophe of the Iranian aircraft. This was stated by Gevork Pogosyan, Minister of Labour and Social Matters of Armenia. According to his version, every family will receive 1.5 million drams, or over 4000 US dollars, allotted from the state budget.
As reported by Artyom Movsisyan, head of the Chief Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia, relatives of the victims of the Tu-154 crash will receive insurance payments of 32-42 thousand euros.
On July 15, at about midday, in the vicinity of the Iranian city of Kazvin, to the north from Teheran, a Tu-154 aircraft of the Iranian "Caspian Airlines", flight No. 7908 Teheran-Yerevan, suffered a wreck.
The reason of the crash is thought to be in engine malfunctions, which caused the pilots to try to make an emergency landing near the city of Kazvin. However, they failed.
According to the official statement of the Ministry of Public Health and Police of Iran, as a result of the wreck, all 168 passengers and crew members were lost. The plane caught fire in flight and broke into pieces. According to final data, there were 36 persons with Armenian surnames onboard, of them two were members of the crew, namely, air technicians (Grigor Barsegyan and Suren Sogomonyan), and 34 other passengers, five of them - citizens of Armenia.
Because of numerous human victims in the wreck, the President of Armenia decreed to announce July 16 to be a mourning day.
A month ago, this very Tu-154 passed its technical maintenance at the Mineralnye Vody Airport, Stavropol Territory, as reported by Nelli Cherchinyan, press secretary of the Chief Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia.
Author: Lilit Ovanisyan Source: CK correspondent
