A compensation verdict over a foreign airlines' damage to Chinese residents, believed to be the first of its kind in China, has taken effect this week, according to the court.
The No.1 Higher People's Court of Shanghai ruled late last year, that the Korean Air should pay 37 Shanghai residents 80,000 to 120, 000 yuan (US$9,639 to US$14,458) in compensation for damages they suffered in an air crash in 1998.
On the afternoon of April 15, 1998, a cargo plane of the Korean Air, leaving Shanghai for Seoul, crashed after going up 1,000 meters, then crashing down on a construction site in the Minhang District of Shanghai, killing three workers on the ground and leaving dozens injured. The crew members all died.
The flying wreckage and shock waves damaged buildings around the crash site. The plaintiff, the 37 residents living in the Qinyuanchun Residence Area where the crash and subsequent explosion took place, said in the indictment that the crash did great harm to their houses and also to their psyche.
They staged the class suit and asked for a public apology from the company and a total of 7 million yuan (US$843,000) in compensation.
At a public hearing held by the Shanghai higher court last November, the plaintiff presented proof of damage.
The representative of the defendant made the apology and expressed the company's will to compensate for the damages.
The higher court decided upon the verdict that the company pays for the damages and economic losses the residents suffered due to crash, which interrupted their normal living and working state.
It is learnt the verdict has gone into effect since both sides have not made an appeal within the fixed time.
(Xinhua 02/07/2001)
