$2.1 Million Award in KAL Downing
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NEWARK, N.J. — The family of a woman killed in the 1983 downing of a Korean Air jet by the Soviet Union won a $2.1-million award, the largest yet in the crash.
A U.S. District Court jury in Uniondale, N.Y., made the award to the family of Alice Ephraimson-Abt. The 23-year-old Saddle River, N.J., graduate student was traveling to China to study when the plane strayed into Soviet airspace and was shot down.
“No money can bring back my daughter,” Hans Ephraimson-Abt said.
“And it does not vindicate the responsibility of Korean Airlines to do a search operation and bring up the remains of all the victims on that plane.”
Ephraimson-Abt is chairman of the American Association for Families of KAL 007 Victims, a group that has pressured the airline to try to recover the bodies of the 269 passengers and crew members.
Survivors of many victims got settlements based on their potential earnings. But the airline took the position that a young student’s family members could not prove economic loss, so jurors were asked to take into account pain and suffering.
Based on information from voice and flight data recorders, the jury determined passengers were probably conscious for at least eight minutes between the missile strike and the crash.
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