The families of the passengers and crew members who died in the Feb. 21 Libyan airliner disaster will each receive payment of $30,000 from Israel, the government announced yesterday. In addition, surds ranging from $10-$30,000 will be paid to each of the seven survivors.
The payments are being offered ex-gratia–of free will–on humanitarian grounds. Justice Minister Yaacov Shimshon Shapiro, who heads a special ministerial committee, dealing with the payments, said on a radio interview last night that arrangements would be made to enable the claimants to collect the money even though most of them are citizens of countries which have no diplomatic relations with Israel. Most of the plane’s passengers and crew members were citizens of Egypt or Libya, nations which consider themselves in a state of war with Israel.
According to reports from Arab capitals, the governments involved are opposed to accepting any compensation from Israel. Israeli officials use the word payment rather than compensation.
El Al announced yesterday in Tel Aviv that it would continue its regular flights to France despite a strike by French flight control officials which has caused several European airlines to suspend service to that country. The crash of an Iberia Airlines jet over France Monday with the loss of 60 lives has been attributed to the chaos in air traffic control resulting from the strike. The French Army has taken over the strikers’ duties. El Al said it was re-routing its flights to Paris to avoid French territory as far as possible and that other flights that normally pass over France would by pass that country. Service to France has been suspended by Air France, BEA, Swissair and Lufthansa.
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