US firms settle Davao 2000 crash for $165-M

CHICAGO, Illinois – The American companies that leased the Air Philippines plane that crashed on Samal Island near Davao City in the Philippines nearly eight years ago have settled for $165-million for the death of 131 passengers and crew. According to a news release from the Donald J. Nolan Law Group in Chicago, the lead counsel along with Sterns & Walker and Bowles & Verna law firms in Northern California, the Chicago-based AAR Aircraft & Engine Group and Fleet Business Credit Corporation, now owned by American Express, have agreed to pay the multi-million settlement in what Attorney Nolan described as “the largest loss of life from an airline crash in Philippine history that has led to the unprecedented settlement in Illinois that could change the way old airplanes are leased to developing nations." The AAR Aircraft & Engine Group and Fleet Business Credit owned the 20-year-old Boeing 737 leased to Air Philippines that crashed off a 577-foot hill on Samal Island on approach to Davao on April 19, 2000. It also ended a long drawn-out court litigation pending before Circuit Court of Cook County Judge Kathy M. Flanagan in Chicago, Illinois that was initially filed by Nolan Law Group on behalf of an Illinois resident, who has a relative as among the victims, for wrongful death suit. Heirs of other victims had followed suit in joining in the complaint that was vigorously opposed by the AAR Aircraft & Engine Group and Fleet Business Credit to have the case litigated in the Philippines. Attorneys Michael Verna and Gerald Sterns, noted that, “faced with those circumstances, we felt these lawsuits would be handled more efficiently and effectively in the United States rather than the Philippines" because “all the participants in the case and their records were located right here in the Chicago area." After several years of legal wrangling and an appeal, the legal team representing the families led by Nolan Law Group prevailed and the action remained in Illinois. According to Nolan, “these companies should never have leased the decrepit airplane to Air Philippines, an under-funded and unsafe start-up airline. Yet more than 100 people died because the leased airplane was regarded as a profitable business venture, in which higher lease payments were gained because the airplane was going to a carrier in the developing world." “One of the many lessons from this case is that a company leasing an aircraft has a duty to provide oversight to ensure that passengers fly on airliners with the latest equipment, the best maintenance and finest training available," Nolan declared. “Attempting to say, ‘We leased it and relied on the governmental authorities of foreign countries to assure passenger safety’ is not sufficient by a long shot in the United States or Illinois courts. In the future, lessors and owners will need to learn that ‘oversight’ does not mean to‘overlook.’" In 2006, Circuit Court of Cook County Judge Kathy M. Flanagan cut through a red tape when she allowed Cotabato Governor Manny F. Pinol to hand-carry her order, asking the Philippines' Air Transportation Office to send to her office copies of the tapes of Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) of the ill-fated flight to determine the cause of the crash. In her three-page order, Flanagan said, “(t)his court and the parties request that the Air Transportation Office of the Republic of the Philippines produce the CVR and FDR to this court at the following address: Honorable Kathy Flanagan, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, 50 West Washington Street, Room 2210, Chicago, Illinois 60602." The transmission of the copies of the tapes is covered by a seven-page “Confidentiality Order" issued by Judge Flanagan on March 16, 2006. Pinol was an interested party in the case as his sister-in-law, Dr. Josephine Pinol, 40-something, and her two children, Jarah Patrice, 7, and Paul Andre, 5, were among those who perished in the crash. - Joseph G. Lariosa, GMANews.TV