More than 50 insurers in China have activated emergency service plans following the crash of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 on Monday.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) called on the country's insurance industry to exhaust all efforts in providing proper insurance claims services to those affected by the incident, Global Times reported.
According to CBIRC, 21 insurance firms have launched on-site investigations and participated in the search and rescue efforts. MU5735 crashed on a mountain in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in Southern China. No survivors out of the 132 people on board the plane have been found.
Beneficiaries of deceased passengers can receive a liability payout of up to RMB400,000 (SG$85,200) from the airline’s insurance policy, the report said, citing insurance lawyers and actuaries. Insurance companies are expected to pay more than RMB100 million for the victims of the crash.
The aircraft’s insured value was estimated at around RMB300 million to RMB400 million. The almost seven-year-old Boeing 737-800 was insured by People's Insurance Company of China under its CAAC United Fleet Insurance programme. China Pacific Insurance Co. and Ping An Property Insurance have been identified as co-underwriters for the fuselage.
The CAAC United Fleet Insurance programme is organised by the Civil Aviation Administration of China as a unified scheme to make it more affordable for Chinese airlines to insure their planes, as well as facilitating simpler payout of claims. The scheme has more than 3,000 large planes listed, with insured value exceeding US$150 billion, making it the largest single programme in the global aviation insurance market.
Air Union Insurance Brokers Co. said on its website that it has been the insurance broker for CAAC for several years.
