AIG IS LEAD INSURER ON DOWNED US AIRWAYS JET

New York-based AIG disclosed at the weekend that it was the lead insurer on the US Airways that was forced to ditch in the Hudson River west of Manhattan on Thursday. AIG did not reveal the level of the cover that US Air had for the nine-year-old Airbus A320 and did not name other carriers. The replacement cost of new A320s typically run in the range of $55m to $65m, while older A320s typically cost $35m to $40m. The US Airways jet was pulled from the Hudson at the weekend so federal transportation safety inspectors could examine the plane. The plane is thought to have lost power in both engines after the plane collided with a flock of Canada geese three minutes into the flight from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina. On November 10 last year a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 lost power on approach to Rome’s Ciampino Airport after it flew through a flock of starlings. The aircraft was badly damaged in the subsequent hard landing. The last fatal accident involving an aircraft in airline service suffering from bird strikes was in 1988, when 35 people lost their lives when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on approach to Bahar Dar.