Better to Roll Over Than to Let Lawyers Romp

Some families of the victims of Flight 261, the January 31, 2000 Alaska Air MD-83 crash, are still lined up behind lawyers, trying to get rich from the pain their relatives may have suffered, in the minutes before the flight went inverted into the Pacific Ocean. They'll succeed, but not to the extent their lawyers originally wanted.

Courts have shielded Boeing from possible punitive damages; and international law keeps punitive damages from being a concern of Alaska's. As of Monday, the airline says it will accept responsibility; and Boeing is effectively pleading no contest.

Lawyers are saying that "...Boeing continues to try to hide the truth about the defective design of the MD-83 from the public by refusing to release potentially damning internal documents. The Plaintiffs will continue to fight to insure that those documents are released to the public to educate them about just how dangerous and unsafe the MD-83 really is." The Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle flight took 88 souls with it, including five crew. The crash was ANN's "Story of the Year" in 2000.

Boeing's liability, it seems, stems from its approval of grease used to lubricate the jackscrew, a single-point-failure item in the airplane's horizontal stabilizer. The jackscrew and its attendant gymbal nut seized, rendering the plane unflyable. What was said to have happened, was that one type of approved grease was substituted for another type of approved grease; but the old grease, which was not compatible with the new, was not fully-removed, and the lubrication suffered. Additionally, the jackscrew assembly was said to have been worn just about to its allowable limit; whether that would ever be found to have been a factor may never be known.

[The NTSB report says that, "...the probable cause of this accident was a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly’s acme nut threads. The thread failure was caused by excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines’ insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly. Contributing to the accident were Alaska Airlines’ extended lubrication interval and the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) approval of that extension, which increased the likelihood that a missed or inadequate lubrication would result in excessive wear of the acme nut threads, and Alaska Airlines’ extended end play check interval and the FAA’s approval of that extension, which allowed the excessive wear of the acme nut threads to progress to failure without the opportunity for detection. Also contributing to the accident was the absence on the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 of a fail-safe mechanism to prevent the catastrophic effects of total acme nut thread loss;" but it is inadmissable in court, for reasons only a lawyer could explain --ed.]

Alaska Airlines took responsibility for the disaster, also without admitting it did anything specifically wrong. Both companies issued statements to the effect that they just want to see the families be able to move on. "Boeing's waving a white flag," said Brian Panish.

Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier said, "What non-contesting means is that we're interested in resolving these proceedings and getting the families the compensation they deserve so they can move on. In not contesting, we do not admit liability in these proceedings, period. We're anxious to close this out for the families."

P anish is one of the lead trial attorneys representing victim's families in the case. when the defendants' decisions to not contest liability were made public, he mentioned, "This is believed to be the first time that a major aircraft manufacturer has declared that it would not contest liability in a mass air disaster case. It is a victory for the Plaintiffs because the Boeing Company will now be forced to compensate the families of the victims for their tragic loss." He and Kevin Boyle represent the family of Gabriela Chavez Garcia de Estrada, the family of Joseph and Linda Knight, and the family of Morris, Thelma and Sheryl Thompson. (Morris Thompson was a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during President Nixon's administration, and was a Cabinet-level officer in Alaska Governor Walter Hickel's first administration.)

When this finally shakes out, expect Alaska to sue Boeing.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov/events/2000/aka261/default.htm