Will Also Drill Wells In Affected Villages

Bellview Airlines has compensated at least 30 families who lost relatives in the October 22 downing of one of the Nigerian airline's 737-200s, according to local media reports. The airline has also agreed to drill two new wells in the villages where the wreckage fell.

"Payment of compensations has actually started," said Bellview CEO Kayode Odukoya earlier this week during a visit with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. "Most of the families have been contacted. Those that have completed documentation are being processed. You know there are 117 families. So it will take some time."

“We have paid about 30 families. You know we commence payment procedures as families come forward and complete the forms. We have a center in Lagos that I will encourage you to visit to see how we are handling the families," Odukoya told President Obasanjo.

As was reported in Aero-News, the 737 (below) went down in a thunderstorm under still unknown circumstances. All 117 people onboard the aircraft died, and possible reasons for the mishap range from weather -- many suspect lightning may have struck the plane -- to a bomb.

While Bellview works to compensate the families of those onboard the stricken airliner, the airline is also attempting to help those in the villages where the airliner went down. According to media reports, the airline will soon drill two new wells -- called "boreholes" -- in those villages.

The company is "already sinking boreholes and the boreholes should be commissioned in the first or second week of December," said Odukoya. "We are actually drilling two boreholes for two villages in the Lissa area."

FMI: www.icao.int