Feds paid $10.2M to settle ’08 Denver runway crash
Apr 10, 2013, 5:39 PM
DENVER (AP) – The federal government paid $10.2 million to settle lawsuits from passengers and crew on a plane pushed off a Denver runway by a wind gust in 2008.
The lawsuits alleged that air traffic controllers didn’t tell the Continental Airlines pilot about wind gusts when giving him wind speeds before takeoff. The Department of Justice released the settlement amount in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request received by The Associated Press Wednesday.
A lawyer for some of the around 60 people who sued revealed last month that settlements had been reached and they totaled “several million dollars.”
Investigators said the air traffic control system and inadequate crosswind training in the airline industry contributed to the crash.
The plane caught fire but everyone escaped. Six people were seriously injured.
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