Aviation Law Expert Lee Kreindler Dies
Wed February 19, 2003 05:03 PM ET
By Gail Appleson, Law Correspondent
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lee Kreindler, one of the world's top aviation law experts and a leading advocate for air-crash victims and their families, has died, his law firm said on Wednesday.

Kreindler, 78, died on Tuesday from complications of a cerebral hemorrhage, said the firm Kreindler & Kreindler.

The New York lawyer, whose career spanned more than half a century, became famous throughout the world as the lead plaintiffs' counsel in virtually every major domestic and international aviation litigation over accidents and bombings that occurred after his firm was founded in 1950.

Kreindler was also known as a passionate champion of victims' rights who played a key role in winning changes to U.S. laws and international treaties that limit victims' claims against airlines.

"His life was a challenge to making the law better for people who needed help," said Marc Moller, a partner at Kreindler & Kreindler. "He was very much a catalyst for the improvement of aviation law and safety."

Widely considered the dean of aviation accident lawyers, Kreindler's clients included plaintiffs in litigation stemming from the 1988 bombing of Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland; the 1996 crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 off Long Island, New York, and the 1998 crash of the Swissair MD-11 airliner in Canadian waters off Nova Scotia.

In the Pan Am case, Kreindler showed that the airline had committed gross security lapses that allowed an unaccompanied suitcase carrying the bomb to be loaded on to the plane. After winning a jury verdict and several appeals, Kreindler was able to get full compensatory damages for passengers' families.

He continued the battle in 1996 by suing Libya for its alleged role in the explosion. Libya recently offered to settle the case and other claims for $2.7 billion but a final accord has been delayed.

A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Kreindler was also a down-to-earth man, often seen sporting an old blue golfing hat, who could patiently translate complicated aviation and international law into plain English.

He was also known for his vast knowledge of aeronautical engineering and aircraft operation.

In October 1996 he was criticized by some other lawyers for suing over the TWA Flight 800 explosion before the government determined what caused the disaster. The suits claimed the airline and the maker of the plane were liable because a mechanical malfunction most likely caused the explosion.

Kreindler told Reuters there was nothing frivolous about the lawsuits and that they had been filed only after his office had completed its internal investigations and shared its findings with the National Transportation Safety Board.

"There's a need to bring lawsuits as soon as reasonably possible to get the litigation going. There's a limit to what we can do just relying on public information," he said.

He said information gathered by his office could help the government determine the cause of the explosion aboard the Paris-bound Boeing 747.

In August 2000, the NTSB said that design flaws in the plane contributed to the explosion. It said that flammable vapors had most likely ignited in a center wing fuel tank.

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