Ethiopian Airlines has made an overwhelming insurance claim from the state owned Ethiopian Insurance Corporation (EIC) for the crash of one of its aircraft off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon in January this year.

The Ethiopian Insurance Corporation has reported a 1.5 billion birr insurance claim by Ethiopian Airlines in its recently concluded fiscal year report.

According to Yewondesen Etafa, managing director of the EIC, the claim is over 480 percent higher than that of the previous year’s claims.

It is believed that a substantial part of the 1.5 billion birr claim is to go into the payment of compensations as a result of the loss of 90 lives and properties caused by the crash.

EIC’s managing director, however, failed to give a detailed account of the claims made by the airline company.

The national insurance corporation has settled only a few of its claims to the tune of a little over 130 million birr, this year following reports that it is struggling to honour unsettled claims.

The corporation’s difficulties, according to observers, is due to some major disasters that have occurred in the course of the year. This includes a structural damage suffered by the Gilgel Gibe II hydropower project.

The 1.5 billion birr claim from Ethiopian airlines follows the announcement of a 39 million dollar compensation from ACE Global Markets, a British insurance company, a month after the crash.

The company had said that the compensation from ACE Global Markets was the value of the aircraft’s hull, and payable to the owner of the aircraft.

Ethiopian airlines had leased the crashed Boeing 737 in September 2009 from CTI Aerospace, an aviation company.

The plane was built in 2002 and operated with Irish discount carrier Ryanair Holdings Plc until April 2009, when it was acquired by CTI Aerospace.

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