Garuda settles 1996 plane crash lawsuit

Garuda settles 1996 plane crash lawsuit

TOKYO (AFP): Indonesia's national airline Garuda on Monday reached settlement over a suit for damages filed by families of two of the three people killed in a crash five years ago in southern Japan.

PT Garuda Indonesia agreed to pay unspecified amounts of money to the family members, according to the settlement reached at the Fukuoka District Court.

Six relatives of the two victims, Masakatsu Okuda, then 68, and Masatoshi Yoshida, then 44, had demanded a total of 249 million yen (US$2 million).

The DC-10, carrying 275 passengers and crew members crashed on takeoff at Fukuoka airport at midday on June 13, 1996, on a flight to Jakarta via Bali, killing three and injuring 103.

Relatives of the crash's third victim, Koichi Imamura, then 39, reached a settlement with Garuda in January 1998.

Yoshida's mother also filed a separate damages suit against Garuda but has since settled with the airline.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the amount of compensation stipulated by the settlement appears to be the maximum amount paid to plaintiffs based on precedents in Japanese court cases, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Investigation showed the plane's captain, Ronald Londong, aborted the takeoff after the third engine failed, but the plane had already reached takeoff velocity, and overran the runway and burst into flames.

In its final report into the crash, issued in 1997, the Japanese transport ministry concluded that the captain's error of judgment caused the accident.

A year ago, the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to indict the captain or any crew members on the grounds there was insufficient evidence of high-level violations of duty or negligence.