The helicopter tail was recovered last Thursday, half a day after the crash in Hạ Long Bay. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — PVI Insurance has paid in advance compensation of US$50,000 to the family of Chu Quang Minh, the pilot who was killed in a helicopter crash in the Hạ Long Bay last Wednesday afternoon.

Under the insurance contract, the insurance company will pay a total compensation of $200,000 to the pilot’s family.

The rest amount of the compensation will be sent to the family after completing the relevant procedures.

The Việt Nam Helicopter Corporation purchased human accident insurance for pilots, which clearly states the insurance coverage and the level of compensation, therefore, the insurance company has enough information to pay in advance compensation quickly for the pilot's family after a serious incident occurred.

The corporation also purchased insurance with limited liability for the loss of passengers and other third parties, with a total value of $30 million.

The amount of compensation that each passenger's family will be paid depends on the provisions of the Law on Civil Aviation of Việt Nam and the agreement between the company and the passengers' families.

The insurance package includes fuselage insurance, airline liability insurance for passengers and third parties, and accident insurance for pilots.

In addition to personal insurance, the aircraft body also has insurance coverage of more than $1.65 million.

The contract also has a provision to pay for search and rescue expenses and other reasonable expenses to minimise the damage caused by accident based on a valid invoice.

On the afternoon of last Wednesday, a Bell 505 helicopter with registration number VN-8650 took off at 4:56pm from Tuần Châu Island, Hạ Long City in the north-eastern province of Quảng Ninh, but lost contact with air traffic control at 5:15pm.

The helicopter, owned by the Northern Việt Nam Helicopter Company under the Việt Nam Helicopter Corporation (Army Corps 18), crashed while taking four Vietnamese tourists sightseeing over the bay.

No one survived after the crash. All the tourists come from the central city of Đà Nẵng.

The search for the body of all the victims was completed within one day after the crash.

On October 18, 2016, the EC-130T2 helicopter with registration number VN-8632 of the Flight Training Centre, the Southern Helicopter Company under the Việt Nam Helicopter Corporation, reportedly crashed at Dinh Mountain in the southern province of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, killing three people.

After the incident, PVI Insurance already compensated a total of $3.5 million for the loss of the helicopter's fuselage following an insurance contract between the two sides.

Data from the Việt Nam Insurance Association, insurance businesses last year paid more than VNĐ64 trillion ($2.73 billion) for participants, an increase of more than 23 per cent compared to the figure of 2021. Of which, non-life insurance companies paid more than VNĐ23.4 trillion ($1 billion) and life insurance companies paid more than VNĐ40.6 trillion ($1.73 billion). — VNS