Lead insurer for Emirates plane crash revealed

Flight EK521 crash-landed at Dubai International Airport, as the jet caught fire with 300 people on board

Insurance News

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Insurance companies are bracing for losses as an Emirates plane crash-landed and caught fire early Wednesday at Dubai International Airport.

Chubb was the lead insurer on the jet, industry publication Insurance Insider revealed. The hull value of the Boeing 777 plane is $90.4 million, with $6 million for increased cost of working. The policy was placed by Willis.

The effect of the crash on Chubb was blunted somewhat, as the craft carried one of the lowest hull values in the Emirates fleet.

The plane was flying to Dubai from the southern Indian state of Kerala when it crashed. All 300 people on board were able to escape, though one firefighter perished in the blaze.

The exact cause of the crash is still unknown, though some reports suggest the crew were making a normal approach when air traffic controllers told them to abandon the landing and start climbing again, for unknown reasons.

Flight EK521, direct from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai, is popular with Kerala residents who work in the Gulf countries, the BBC reported.

The incident comes amid several recent losses in the aviation space, including crashed EgyptAir Flight 804, missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and a 2015 Germanwings flight ended by pilot suicide.

This series of aviation disasters has cast a pall over the insurance market, with carriers facing annual losses exceeding $2 billion, including liability and hull losses expected to amount to several hundred million dollars.
 

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