Somebody Died; Somebody Has to Pay!

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said on Tuesday that he will not dismiss suits against AMR, UAL, Boeing, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, World Trade Center Properties, and others for what is allegedly their part in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The airlines argued that the terror attacks were beyond their control (they were -- the airlines followed all federal screening rules; and then their crews gave in to the hijackers' demands, just the way the government experts told them to), and that the acts should therefore be classified as 'acts of God.' Beyond that, if government actions that followed September 11 were to be used as evidence, the terrorist attacks were 'acts of war,' also exempt from litigation.

The judge's ruling seems to support the theory that the attacks were not acts of war; and that they would have been preventable, had the airlines (and Boeing?) done something differently, yet still withing the federal rules.

The heirs of those killed in the STC and Pentagon attacks, and on Flight 93, stand to collect millions -- either on top of, or instead of, millions already pledged by the American people, and not yet used as 'administrative costs' by the charitable organizations that collected those donations.

The real question seems to be, 'should those heirs go for the big pot 'o money that's possible through litigation, or settle for the monies already available?' To be fair, the suit on Judge Hellerstein's docket was brought by ten entities who suffered property damage, and the heirs of 70 victims (of the roughly 3000 who were killed that horrible day).

FMI: www.ual.com; www.amrcorp.com; www.boeing.com