Russian insurance company AlfaStrakhovanie has paid compensation for the Embraer 190 aircraft operated by Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) that crashed near Aktau on Dec. 25, 2024, and has begun paying compensation to its passengers, Minval.az reported, citing Ilya Kabachnik, the general director of aviation and space insurance at AlfaStrakhovanie.
“We paid full compensation for the aircraft in February. The primary part of the risk was reinsured by the Russian National Reinsurance Company,” he said.
The exact amount of compensation has not been disclosed, although experts estimate it at between $25 million and $30 million.
The company has been paying insurance benefits to the passengers of the flight since January, as regulated by the Montreal Convention 1999 and Russian legislation, which provides up to $22,000 for compensation in the case of death or injury to passengers.
At the same time, the insurer has not received any claims for damages suffered by third parties yet.
“If they arise, we will settle them with the airline in due order,” Kabachnik said.
The aircraft, operated by AZAL, crashed while en route from Baku to Grozny, carrying 67 people on board and killing 38. The majority of the passengers were citizens of Azerbaijan.
Reuters, citing an Azerbaijani government source, reported that the aircraft had been shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S missile system. Allegedly, Azerbaijan possessed a fragment of a missile extracted from the aircraft. Previously, the country’s authorities had stated that they had been preparing to file a court claim against Russia, accusing its officials of having denied their involvement in the accident while attempting to shift the blame onto the crew.
