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From: tp@ndm20
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Trust (?) Fund
Message-ID: <400008@ndm20>
Date: Thu, 6-Feb-86 10:27:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ndm20.400008
Posted: Thu Feb  6 10:27:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 08:17:14 EST
References: <884@decwrl.DEC.COM>
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Nf-ID: #R:decwrl.DEC.COM:884:ndm20:400008:000:1123
Nf-From: ndm20!tp    Feb  6 09:27:00 1986


>	How is it that a children's fund is actually necessary? I would
>have thought that NASA would have insured the lives of the crew. If they
>didn't, why not? 

According to a news broadcast that  I saw,  NASA can  not, by federal
law,  purchase  insurance  for  the  shuttle,  or the  crew.  Chrisat
McAuliffe was given a  $1M insurance  policy by  a firm  whose name I
forget.  The families of those crew members in the  military will get
standard military death benefits, I assume.  But indications are that
other  non-military  crewmembers  will  receive  no  other government
benefits.    If they  were not  otherwise insured,  they will receive
nothing.  Even if they were insured, my wife  (who has  worked in the
group  life  insurance  industry) informs  me that  all standard life
policies  have  an  exclusion  clause  for  the  flight  crew  of any
aircraft.  If the crew did not  have the  right kind  of insurance, I
suspect the families will get nothing.  I hope I'm wrong on this, and
I hope someone will correct me, but it seems some of the families may
be in dire need of financial assistance.

Terry Poot