A jury has awarded families of four passengers killed in a Youngstown, Ohio, plane crash and a survivor $89 million, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20100407_Phila__jury_awards__89_million_in_plane_crash.html
The jury in the Philadelphia Common Please Court Tuesday found that the manufacturer of the six-seat Piper Cherokee’s engine had hidden information about the plane’s defective carburetor. The manufacturer is Lycoming Engines of Williamsport, Pa.
In the 1999 accident the plane crashed not long after its takeoff, after it made a refueling pit stop.
The victims who died in the crash were Lendon Pridgen, 53; his stepson Anthony Cipparone, 15, both of Collegeville; Kenneth Tubman, 47, of Lower Providence; and Daniel Diggen, 56, of Chester, Md.
The sole survivor, 15-year-old Tyler Johnson, sustained serious injuries.
Pridgen and Tubman were friends, and both chemists at SmithKline Beecham. Tubman’s family never sued over the fatal crash.
The verdict from the 11-person jury followed a two week trial. The panel granted $64 million in punitive damages and $25 million in compensatory damages.