More Mandala crash families to sue Boeing

More Mandala crash families to sue Boeing

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

More families of the victims of last month's crash of a Mandala
Airlines plane in Medan announced on Tuesday they would file suit
against U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co.

The families of the victims, grouped in a newly formed
association, announced they would file suit in a full-page ad
that appeared in the Medan-based Harian Waspada daily.

The ad said at least 82 families of the crash victims had
formed the association, which does not yet have an official name,
to help protect their rights and to ensure their demands were
met.

The ad also announced the families of the crash victims had
appointed New York-based law firm Speiser Krause, and S.L.
MesoAmerica to represent them in their suit against Boeing.

Mahyar Pane, one of the people assisting the families of the
crash victims, said they had met with representatives of the law
firm to convey their wish to sue Boeing, but did not know when
the suit would be filed in a Chicago court.

Mahyar, who is also a translator at the law firm, said the
firm was selected because of its experience with airline
disasters.

On Sept. 5, a Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 jetliner crashed
into a densely populated residential area near the Polonia
Airport in Medan, killing 102 people on board and 47 on the
ground. Fifteen passengers survived the crash, the country's
worst in eight years.

This is the second group of families to announce plans to sue
the aircraft manufacturer. On Oct. 6, the families of more than
100 people killed in the crash, grouped in the Mandala Crash
Victims' Families Association, announced they had appointed the
Chicago-based Nolan Law Group to represent them in a lawsuit
against Boeing.

At attorney at the firm, Manuel von Ribbeck, said there had
been no discussion yet as to how much the families intended to
sue for. He said the firm would first investigate the crash to
determine whether there was sufficient evidence to go to trial
before filing a suit in Chicago, where Boeing is also based.

When asked about the new association's plan to sue Boeing, the
head of the Mandala Crash Victims' Families Association, Waspada
Sinulingga, said he was surprised because most of the victims'
families had joined his association.

"The emergence of this new association is strange. How many
families of crash victims are there that they need all these
different associations?" Waspada told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday.

Waspada, who lost his wife and two other relatives in the
crash, said the new association was formed simply to take
advantage of the situation, but quickly added that every family
had the right to pursue legal action.

He said his association, which represents the families of 100
people killed in the crash, had agreed to authorize the Nolan Law
Group to represent them in their suit against Boeing.

He said representatives of the families would meet with
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab in Jakarta
on Wednesday to discuss their plans, while a team of
investigators from Canada would travel to Bandung to examine the
doomed aircraft's engines.