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Crash plane boss offers Paris cash talks

CAIRO, Jan 15 (AFP) – The chairman of Flash Airlines said Thursday he was prepared to go to France to discuss compensation with the families of those who died when one of the company’s two planes crashed on January 3, killing all 148 on board.

Speaking to AFP, Mohammed Nour also said that because of the damaging publicity that followed the crash off the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the company had suspended the flights of its other plane until February.

Nour said that “if the families come to an understanding about holding a meeting (with Flash) I will go to Paris next week to attend it, and will be happy to do so.”

He added that he had already made arrangements with Flash’s insurers for a first payment to be made quickly, without waiting for an end to the probe into the causes of the crash.

Nour said the Boeing 737-300 had been insured for USD 550 million, and that if total claims exceeded that amount, “Flash Airlines must pay the difference.”

He explained that the amount paid out would depend on the age, family situation and health of each victim.

Flash is covered by Egypt’s Sharq Insurance Co., with the policy reassured through the Egyptian Reassurance Co. and ultimately by a Lloyd’s of London syndicate, XL Brockbank Ltd.

Killed in the crash were 134 French tourists, a Moroccan and 13 Egyptian crew members.

A French submarine robot on Wednesday launched a search for the plane’s flight recorders, or black boxes. One of them records the movements of the plane’s controls and the other the voices of the pilot and co-pilot.

The black boxes are expected to reveal the exact cause of the disaster, although Egyptian and French experts believe it was a technical fault or other accident and not terrorism.

© AFP

                                Subject: France news