$60M damages sought for L.A. crash

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 8

$60M damages sought for L.A. crash

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles Lawsuits were filed yesterday seeking more than SUS6O million ($124.8 million) in damages for the relatives of five of the estimated 90 people who died in an air collision over the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos. A lawyer, Harold Sullivan, filed a Superior Court suit seeking SUS4O million ($83.2 million) in damages for a Los Angeles widow, Bethzaida Gutierrez, whose husband, Hector, died in the collision of an Aeromexico DC9 and a private plane on September 1. Her two sons, Hector and Daniel, were included in the claim. The suit was filed against the airline, the

estate of the small plane’s pilot, William Kramer, a businessman, and two unnamed radar and electronic tracking systems makers and distributors. Mr Sullivan said he also had filed a claim against the Government for SUS2O million ($41.6 million), alleging the Government should have provided safer flight rules and a better radar system for Los Angeles. The collision killed all 64 people aboard the airliner and the three occupants of the small plane. An estimated 23 people died on the ground when homes were destroyed by flaming wreckage. A suit filed in a Federal court by another lawyer, Melvin Belli, against Aeromexico and Mr

Kramer’s estate, asked for unspecified damages for three children of Carlos and Guadelupe Lopez, of Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico, who were killed in the crash with their son, Carlos Lopez. The suit also sought damages on behalf of Humberto and Justina Gonzales, also of Navojoa, whose daughter, Dinorah, was killed. Mr Belli said the theory of negligence against the airline was that the DC9 crew should have seen the smaller plane before the collision. Another issue, he said, would be whether the private plane showed up as a blip on an air traffic controller’s screen and, if so, why the airliner was not alerted.