Analysis of China Eastern Airlines accident passenger insurance claims: If I didn’t buy aviation accident insurance, is there still a chance to get insurance compensation?

On March 21, 2022, a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 flying from Kunming to Guangzhou lost contact and crashed over Wuzhou City, Guangxi. ***132 people were on board, including 123 passengers. , crew of 9 people.

After the plane crash, many netizens expressed their fear on public social platforms that they had not purchased aviation accident insurance before. In fact, from the perspective of the announcement, aviation accident insurance is indeed the main way for the families of air crash victims and injured passengers to obtain compensation.

Public information shows that aviation accident insurance is a commercial insurance specially designed by insurance companies for air passengers. Aviation accident insurance includes single aviation accident insurance. This type of insurance is often purchased together with the purchase of air tickets. It only covers a single flight. The premium ranges from 20 yuan to 30 yuan, and the insured amount ranges from 200,000 yuan to 400,000 yuan. There are also aviation accident insurance sold on Internet platforms. The coverage period can cover all flights from a few days to a year. The prices vary, but the insured amount is as high as millions or even tens of millions of yuan.

Sun Hongtao, associate professor at the School of Law of East China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out that aviation insurance, as a kind of accident insurance, is a type of personal insurance according to the classification of insurance law. It is not a kind of loss compensation like property insurance, but It is a fixed benefit insurance. "In other words, there is no limit to accident insurance. The amount of compensation depends on how many policies the insured has purchased. The more policies that meet the compensation requirements, the greater the compensation. It is indeed possible to obtain compensation worth tens of millions." he said.

Historical data shows that during the Air France crash in 2009, one of the Chinese people purchased life insurance from PICC and once received an insurance compensation of 9.6 million yuan. However, Sun Hongtao also said that because the probability of a plane crash is extremely low, most people tend not to check aviation accident insurance when purchasing flights, and the probability of purchasing multiple insurance policies for this purpose is extremely low.

However, even if they do not take the initiative to configure aviation accident insurance, family members of air crash victims and injured passengers still have the opportunity to obtain compensation passively. That is, some bank credit cards will allow the card owner to configure aviation accident insurance. If you use this credit card to pay for air tickets, the configured aviation insurance will take effect. If the aviation accident insurance is confirmed not to be configured, will the passengers involved in the China Eastern Airlines crash still have a chance to receive compensation?

Wang Xujin, director of the Insurance Research Center of Beijing Technology and Business University, said that even if passengers did not purchase commercial insurance, the airline involved in the accident still needs to bear liability for compensation.

For domestic routes, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued the "Regulations on the Limits of Liability of Domestic Air Transport Carriers" in 2006. The "Regulations" stated that domestic air transport carriers shall be liable for damages that occur on civil aircraft or among passengers. If an incident during the process of boarding or disembarking a civil aircraft causes personal injury or death to a passenger, the liability limit for each passenger is RMB 400,000; in addition, the liability limit for each passenger's carry-on items is RMB 3,000; for checked passengers The limit of liability for baggage and transported goods is RMB 100 per kilogram.

If it is an international route, most countries follow the 1999 Montreal Convention. The Convention stipulates that regardless of whether there is fault or not, the carrier's compensation limit reaches 100,000 Special Drawing Rights (approximately 100,000 Special Drawing Rights). (total US$135,000), the carrier may not exempt or limit its liability. When a passenger's injury or death is caused by the carrier's responsibility, the passenger may also claim compensation exceeding 100,000 SDRs.

Currently, the crashed China Eastern Airlines flight was a domestic route, so regardless of whether the crashed passengers purchased insurance or not, they can still receive liability compensation up to the airline's limit of 400,000 yuan.

Insurance lawyer Liu Bingrui pointed out that if the airline allocates "passenger statutory liability insurance" to the insurance company, then the subsequent airline will not have to bear the liability for compensation, but will pass it on to the insurance company for compensation. However, for passengers, it does not matter whether the airline has purchased this "passenger statutory liability insurance" or not. It is nothing more than compensation from the airline or the insurance company.

In addition to applying for aviation insurance and liability compensation, lawyer Liu Bingrui also added that in addition to aviation insurance, if you die and purchase general accident insurance or public traffic accident insurance, the same You can get death benefits; in addition, if you purchase annuity insurance, whole life insurance, term life insurance, or endowment insurance, you can also get death benefits.

He also reminded that in recent years, insurance institutions have given away short-term accident insurance in various ways. This kind of policy is usually electronic and family members may not know it. You can check all the policies under his name through the Insurance Association of China. Summary

In short, for passengers, the final amount of insurance compensation will depend on the airline’s liability compensation, aviation accident insurance compensation (if insured), and the insurance coverage of life insurance, accident insurance, etc. Forehead.

It is understood that in the 2010 Yichun air crash in Heilongjiang, the per capita compensation limit was 950,000 yuan; in the 2014 Malaysia Airlines MH370 air crash that shocked the world, each Chinese passenger received compensation of approximately 1.5 million yuan; In the 2015 TransAsia Airways plane crashed into a river in Taiwan, each passenger who died received a compensation package of 2.95 million yuan.

There were 132 people on board the plane in this crash. If the average compensation for each person was about 1 to 2 million yuan, the amount paid by the insurance company alone for the lives of the people on board would exceed 100 million yuan.