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On Jan. 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed off the coast of California, killing 88 people bound for Seattle. Subsequent analysis implicated:
As with all disasters, blame and finger-pointing and lawsuits abounded.
On Friday, the Chronicle reported that Alaska Airlines and Boeing Co. have settled all but one of the lawsuits resulting from this crash. Settlement amounts to heirs and families “ranged from a few million dollars to $20 million.”
Plaintiff’s attorney Kevin Boyle said, “They were above and beyond the amounts in usual cases. It’s not perfect justice but it’s the best our legal system can provide.”
I would love to know what Kevin Boyle considers “perfect justice.” Should the courts have sentenced the airline executives to death by plane crash? I mean, what was he hoping for? Nothing anybody can do at this point can bring back the 88 people who died. This wasn’t a malicious act on anyone’s part, or even a criminally negligent act by the people who maintained the airplane. I’m certain that everybody at Boeing and Alaska Airlines would much rather this disaster had never happened.
So what is “justice?” As far as I know, justice is about fairness. It’s sure not fair that 88 people died in a plane crash, but is there any way to make it right afterwards?
Maybe Boyle had some ideas that didn’t get quoted in the newspaper. I like to think so, because the alternative is that he was just spouting soundbites, feigning indignation for the sake of the press. A back-of-the-envelope calculation puts his piece of this settlement at (6 plaintiffs x ~$5M apiece x standard percentage of 30% x 50% split with his partner) about $4.5 million, enough to pursue real reform in airline oversight, travel safety, or even “perfect justice” if that’s his thing.
On a related note, the transcript of the cockpit voice recorder is terrifying.
