JP\/4\/Mandala<\/p>\n
Families of Mandala crash victims insist on suing Boeing<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Medan<\/p>\n
Families of the September Mandala crash victims insist they will
\nfile suit against U.S. aircraft-maker Boeing Corp. despite the Rp
\n300 million (US$30,000) compensation per family being offered by
\nMandala Airlines.<\/p>\n
Mandala Crash Victims Families Association head Waspada
\nSinulingga said on Monday that the association had asked U.S. law
\nfirm the Nolan Law Group to file the lawsuit with the court in
\nChicago, the home base of Boeing.<\/p>\n
Waspada said 20 families of victims had rejected the
\ncompensation offered by Mandala because the latter had required
\nrecipients to sign an agreement effectively banning them from
\nfiling suit against Boeing or any other party.<\/p>\n
Waspada said these families would continue to reject the
\ncompensation offered until Mandala revised the compensation
\nagreement.<\/p>\n
\"Until Mandala revises or drops the (contentious) point in the
\ncompensation agreement, we'll continue to reject the offer. And
\nwe'll proceed with our plan to sue Boeing, not for the
\ncompensation but to reveal the cause of the crash,\" Waspada said.<\/p>\n
A Mandala Airlines Indonesia Boeing 737-200 jetliner crashed
\nin a heavily populated area near Polonia Airport in Medan, North
\nSumatra, on Sept. 5 this year, killing 102 people on board and 47
\non the ground. Fifteen passengers survived the crash, the
\ncountry's worst in eight years. The National Transportation
\nSafety Board had said that investigations into the cause of crash
\nwould be completed by early next year.<\/p>\n
\"I turned down the compensation offered not because of the
\namount, but to ensure my rights. No one can ban my right to sue
\nBoeing,\" said Chairil Laksmono, the husband of victim Lisa
\nDifianti.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, International Association of Families of Victims of
\nBoeing Crashes chairwoman Monica Kelly, who is also a Nolan Law
\nGroup lawyer, said that over the past several months there had
\nbeen five accidents involving Boeing aircraft in Venezuela,
\nCyprus, Peru, Nigeria and Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Kelly said that aside from the case in Indonesia, none of the
\nfamilies of the crash victims in other countries had been
\nrequired to waiver their right to file suit against Boeing in
\nexchange for compensation.<\/p>\n
\"We want there to be a formal investigation to reveal who is
\nbehind all this,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She cited an example of a case where the families of the
\nvictims of a 1997 Garuda crash, also in North Sumatra, were free
\nto file lawsuit against any party despite a compensation offer
\nfrom Garuda.<\/p>\n
As a result, the families won the case and got a hefty
\ncompensation from Boeing, Kelly said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp4mandala-1447899208",
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