Relatives of Tu-154 crash victims not decided about compensation

Relatives of the passengers of the Tu-154 airliner which crashed over Germany on July 2nd have not yet decided whether they will file a lawsuit for compensation. Elmar Gimulla, a German lawyer who is currently in Ufa, told RIA Novosti on the phone that the passengers' relatives "have not yet agreed among each other whether to file a lawsuit for compensation at all, and even if they do, it is still unclear whom and when they will authorise to present their interests." "We do not bring pressure to bear on those people, but we are ready to co-operate. They know where to find us," Gimulla said adding that he had not met the passengers' relatives yet.

The German lawyer acts on behalf of the Bashkirian Airlines. He has already filed a lawsuit for moral and material damage inflicted on the airlines by the Swiss Skyguide ground control in whose zone of responsibility the tragedy took place. The damage has been estimated at about 29 million dollars. Gimulla is also preparing a lawsuit against Skyguide on behalf of the crewmen's relatives who authorised him to present their interests.

The lawyer also said that the compensation's amount was yet to be determined. At the same time, he acknowledged that this might be "a six-digit figure for each victim," including crewmen.

The collision between the Russian airliner and the Boeing cargo aircraft claimed 71 lives, including 11 crewmen. The airliner's passengers were mainly children and teenagers from Bashkiria travelling to Spain for summer vacations.