Insurers liable to pay €84,000 to each victim of downed AirAsia flight

Insurers will be liable for claims relating to the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The AirAsia flight crashed on 28 December 2014 en-route to Singapore following bad weather.

Initial reports had suggested insurers may not be liable for the crash as the airline did not have a permit to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on the day of the crash.

However, the Indonesian Transportation Ministry confirmed the day of the flight had no effect on the eventual crash of the aircraft and therefore the lack of a permit did not affect the insurance liability.

The Indonesian financial services authority said insurers are liable by law for payments of 1.25 billion rupiah (€84,000) for each of the 155 passengers, and an additional 315 million rupiah to 750 million rupiah for 25 passengers who had bought flight insurance.