Judge Awards $2.9 Million to Aeromexico Pilot’s Family

A Los Angeles federal judge awarded $2.9 million Friday to the family of an Aeromexico captain killed nine years ago when a light plane collided over Cerritos with the jetliner he was piloting.

The crash on Aug. 31, 1986, killed 82 people.

At a 1989 trial in Los Angeles, U.S. Dist. Judge David V. Kenyon cleared Aeromexico of liability, ruling that a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controller and William Kramer, pilot of the small plane, were responsible for the tragedy. A federal appeals court upheld the ruling in 1993.

Investigators said Kramer had violated FAA rules when he failed to get permission before entering airspace normally reserved for airliners landing at Los Angeles International Airport. They said controllers failed to warn the DC-9 that the single-engine Piper had entered the airspace.

On Friday, Chief Judge William Byrne awarded $2,987,950 to the widow and four children of captain Arturo Valdez Prom, who was in command of the jetliner.

The Prom case is believed to be the last of the Aeromexico cases to be resolved. In all, more than 50 cases were settled and more than two dozen went to trial. The U.S. government has paid out more than $40 million and Kramer’s $1 million in life insurance has been deposited with the court for apportionment to the plaintiffs.