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.