Posted on 06/19/2009 4:00:34 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
PARIS (AP) — Air France will give about euro17,500 ($24,000) as an advance to the families of the victims of the crash of Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, the company's chief executive said Friday.
Air France lawyers are contacting the families of the 228 victims from 32 countries to make sure the money gets to them, Phillipe Gourgeon said in an interview broadcast Friday on RTL radio.
Air France also is looking into holding a memorial for all the victims of the May 31 crash, Gourgeon said.
Some families of French victims have accused Air France of a lack of sympathy and of failing to provide them with timely information on the investigation into the causes of the crash.
"We are going to be very focused on the first advance of about euro17,000 that is paid for each victim," Gourgeon said. He added that there were no strings attached to accepting the advance.
Contacting the families is no easy matter, Gourgeon said. Sometimes the only contact number for a victim is from a mobile phone that was lost in the crash.
He said the essential objective now was to find the aircraft's black box flight recorders.
The cause of the crash has not been determined, and the flight recorders could provide the key information the investigators need.
Gourgeon also said that difficulties that have emerged in the exchange of information between representatives of France's air accident investigation agency, BEA, and Brazilian medical authorities conducting autopsies on the recovered bodies were being resolved.
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Nothing brings back the dead like money!
I know that sounds cold and I don't for a minute believe it happened, but there is some sicko thinking that right now(besides me of course)
It's been done before.
The movie Airport (1970) created the same stir. Back then you could get a quick life insurance policy out of a machine at the airport. Maybe you still can.
That would be nice.
I wonder if anyone has given any thought to recovering the friggin' BODIES?
The families will have some initial expenses related to the deaths and loss of income. Air France is doing the right thing by doing this, especially if there are no strings attached.
They’ve recovered about 20% of the bodies so far. I imagine the sharks had a feast on many of the remainder.
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