Kin's of the victim of Mangalore crash get legal help from US man

He is not a lawyer, not even an air crash investigator and he makes no claims to being an insurance expert. But world over, grief stricken families of air crash victims from the remotest corners of an Amazonian village to a Russian town know him by name, and share with him a "tremendous rapport", as he himself puts it and sometimes, even lunch.

He is George Hatcher, a self-described air crash consultant and adviser who helps families take on colossal aircraft companies or airlines in US courts for damages after the loss of a dear one in a crash. Many families have won millions of dollars in settlements, he says and for many, the battle is still on. Hatcher, at 67, made his first ever trip to India last weekend and headed straight to the May 22 Air India crash site in Mangalore. He met families of the victims, spoke to young widows of Gulf-based Indian workmen even as their tiny tots played in the same room and convinced at least 10 of them that they deserved more than the mandatory compensation the airline was bound, under an international treaty, to give them. With him was Nishit Dhruva, partner of a Mumbai-based law firm M Dhruva & Partners who has joined hands with three large US law firms and setting the stage to sue Boeing, the American aircraft maker, in US courts for the biggest Indian air crash in decades.

Hatcher told, "You are a fare paying passenger. You need to be paid a compensation after any crash. The question is how much." That's where he comes in."I am just a bridge between lawyers and the clients," he said. But he doesn't knock on victims' doors unless he is sought. It is law firms that seek his help. In the US, law forbids law firms from chasing victims for the first 45 days after a tragedy.In India, now, Hatcher says he feels the families of the 170-odd victims, many of whom are poor, deserve to be placed on an equal footing to seek better damages.In India, though, he said Air India had a good flight record, experts in the field are pointing fingers at "a pilot error". But some, he added, "suggest turbine problems". With it being a US plane, what is being looked at is "multiple culpability" as this is the third 737 800 going down in recent times.As Hatcher says, "It is not enough to pay out one pay cheque, clear the wreckage, submit a report and say that we are even. Assess each victim based on parameters, including age, education, job, income, number of dependents, pain and suffering."