Unborn baby in jet toll

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 8

Unborn baby in jet toll

NZPA - New Orleans While investigators struggled with faulty tapes and dozens of interviews in the search for the cause of America's second-worst air disaster, the death toll was raised yesterday to 154 because a woman victim was pregnant. A coroner. Charles Odom, said that a death certificate had been issued for an unborn baby when it was discovered that a victim. Margaret ,Eymard, aged 30. was seven months pregnant. Mrs Eymard was flying on stand-by on the Pan American flight with her husband. Ted. when it crashed on

Saturday. They were the last to board the plane. In another development, the first two lawsuits in connecton with the crash were filed yesterday. Gabriel Trahan, whose wife and second daughter were killed on the ground, filed a suit in a Federal Court in New Orleans seeking 5NZ20.2 million for himself and his surviving daughter. the daughter, Melissa, aged 16 months, was dubbed a "miracle baby" after rescuers found her alive in the smouldering wreckage of her home two hours after the crash. Mr Trahan alleges that

Pan Am and the Federal Aviation Administration were negligent in allowing the plane to take off in bad weather. In ‘ Los Angeles, a suit seeking 5NZ94.5 million was filed in a Federal Court by Elaine and Arthur Cunnings of Howell, Michigan, who lost two daughters and three grandchildren in the crash. The daughters were on their way to their brothers funeral in California. Meanwhile the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that airliners should be equipped with improved flight data instruments after the crash.