The families of the 10 passengers who died in a deadly plane crash at the Pieri Airstrip in Uror County of Jonglei State said they have not been compensated months after the South Supreme Airlines owner promised to compensate them.
On March 2, a small aircraft (HK-4274) belonging to the South Supreme Airline crashed shortly after take-off from an airstrip in Pieri town, killing all the 10 people on board.
A few days later, Ayii Duang Ayii, the company’s owner, told reporters in Juba that the affected families will be compensated without providing any timeline.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Makuei Puok Bai, a representative of the aggrieved families, said: “If you could recall in May, we initiated some proceedings through the justice ministry. But the ministry advised us to first seek redress outside the court through an advocate. So, for all these long we have been engaging the airline company.”
Puok, who lost two close family members in the fatal crash, said they are prepared to sue the company’s owner Ayii if he does not compensate them within two weeks.
“We have made a submission, detailing our demands to the company. According to international laws regulating the operation of airlines, we need $170,000 in compensation, failure of which will take us to the court,” he said.
A prominent Juba lawyer representing the families, Monyluak Alor Kuol said his law firm is seeking compensation from the company outside of the court within two weeks, a failure to which they will take the company to court.
Responding to the concerns, Ayii urged the families to remain patient until the investigations are concluded.
“Till now, we are still waiting for the results of investigations into the crash to be made known to us. As a company, we also need compensation from our insurers just like the victims' families. That will not happen when investigations are not done. So, they should be patient,” he stated.
This is the second such incident reported involving a plane operated by South Supreme Airlines. The first occurred in 2017 when one of its planes caught fire and made a crash landing in Wau, but there were no fatalities.