Plane disaster families claim EUR 12.5m damages

9 February 2004

ZARAGOZA – A joint civil lawsuit was filed Monday by 12 family members of the 62 military personnel who died on board a Yakovlev-42 plane belonging to Ukranian airline UM Air.

All the soldiers were being flown back to Spain from Afghanistan where they had been carrying out peacekeeping duties when the plane crashed in May in Turkey.

The prosecutors are claiming EUR 12.5 million in damages.

The tragedy has caused huge controversy in Spain with the government threatening to sue Nato, which was implicated in hiring and checking the ageing aircraft.

Javier Hernández, spokesman for the prosecutors, said this is the first civil suit being filed on behalf of the family members.

Judge Angel Dolado agreed to accept a procedure that will speed up the legal proceedings against the airline.

Once all the documents have been translated and sent to the Ukraine, an answer from the airline should arrive in a few months.

The suit is legally based on the Warsaw Convention, which governs the liability of carriers for death or personal injury and in respect of loss of or damage to baggage.

Five different legal concepts are being considered in the suit – moral damage (the pain suffered when a loved one dies), affection (the loss in itself), economic damages (for those families who depended financially on the deceased), psycho-physical damages (sick leave from work) and material damage (baggage and personal belongings).

Initial documentation includes a report by Orlando Jiménez which states the accident was due to human error on behalf of the pilots, which made them unaware of the situation.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news