Checks for Quake Victims on 747

U.S. checks donated in Britain to Armenia’s earthquake victims were aboard the crashed Pan Am jumbo jet, but not a penny will be lost, a Soviet bank said Thursday.

The thousands of dollars in checks, mainly from U.S. companies in Britain, were being flown to the United States for clearance by U.S. banks on Flight 103, said Ray King, deputy general manager of Moscow Narodny Bank in London.

“There’s no loss to the fund because we have microfilm copies of the checks, and all the banks are cooperating in helping to clear the checks,” King said in a telephone interview.

A total of about $5.4 million has been received by the bank in cash, checks and credit card donations since the Dec. 7 disaster in the southern Soviet republic.