Families of Luxair crash victims awarded compensation

Families of people who died in a Luxair plane crash are to be compensated 11 years after the tragedy.

The Luxembourg Court of Appeal on Tuesday ordered the pilot and three former Luxair employees to pay damages following the crash of the Luxair Fokker in Niederanven on November 6, 2002. The crash killed 20 people.

The amount awarded by the court is lower than the figure requested by the families involved. The four defendants will pay a total sum of 413,000 euros instead of the 1.5 million euros requested by relatives.

The funds are expected to be paid out by the airline insurer.

The lawyer representing relatives of three victims expressed their disappointment over the compensation.

"We expected more," he said, saying that the sum awarded was the same as what would be awarded in a road traffic accident.

Maitre Urbany, lawyer to the father of the artist Michel Majerus, has threatened to take the matter to the Supreme Court. The father received 70,000 euros in damages but his lawyer expenses will not be reimbursed.

Translated from an article by Sophie Kieffer