Passengers’ families flown to Mauritius

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 10

Passengers’ families flown to Mauritius

NZPA-Reuter Taipei Relatives of passengers killed when the South African airliner plunged into the Indian Ocean will be flown from Taipei to Mauritius for the grisly task of identifying bodies. Joseph Tong, a South African Airways official in Taipei, said about 50 Taiwan residents'and a group of Japanese will be flown out free of charge. The airline’s Tokyo office has said that about 100 relatives of the 47 Japanese passengers aboard the Boeing 747 will be on the scheduled flight from Taipei to Johannesburg, which stops at the island of Mauritius to refuel. Thirty passengers from Taiwan were among those feared killed in Saturday’s crash. In Taiwan, the S.A.A. office has been fiercely criticised in the press and by a leading member of the Nationalist Party

over its handling of the tragedy. On Saturday, after it was feared the plane had crashed, crowds of reporters, complaining that S.A.A. officials were slow to release the passenger list, burst into the S.A.A. office. The manager called the police. A legislator, Jaw Shao Kang, told Parliament on Monday that S.A.A. officials were “stubborn and indifferent.” He called on the Government to negotiate with S.A.A. for the best possible compensation for relatives. Mr Tong said in an interview that S.A.A. had given 50,000 Taiwan dollars ($2730) to each Of the families of the Taiwanese victims as an emergency payment and separate compensation was being worked out. He said all relatives flying to Mauritius would be given free accommodation there. ___