Jul 1, 2009, 10:20 GMT
Sana'a - The Yemeni airline whose plane crashed off the coast of the Comoros islands Tuesday with 153 people on board said Wednesday it would pay each affected family 20,000 euros in advance compensation, while insisting the aircraft had been safe.
Yemenia Airways chairman Abdul-Khalek Al-Qadhi made the announcement at a press conference in Yemen's capital Sana'a where the passengers boarded the ill-fated final leg of the flight from France to the Comoran capital Moroni.
Only one known survivor was rescued from the sea Tuesday.
Al-Qadhi said the 20,000 euros was an advance on the insurance money the families could expect to receive and not an admission of fault on the airline's part.
The defects in the plane detected by French aviation authorities in 2007, which saw the aircraft banned from French airspace, had been 'cosmetic,' he argued.
Yemenia would also be laying on a special flight to take the families of the victims, mostly Comorans based in France, to Comoros after all the bodies had been recovered, he announced.
Many Comorans are pointing a finger at the airline for the disaster. They maintain the plane was in a poor state of repair.
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