Section: MAIN
Page: A10
TIMES UNION, Albany, N.Y.
WEDNESDAY, June 14, 1989
  •  More about Georgia Nucci (June 2 1996)
  •  More about Georgia Nucci (July 21, 1989 - article)
  • About victim Christopher Jones
  • Nucci family adopts 4 children from Colombia 18 months after PA 103-crash
  • Large interview with Georgia and Anthony Nucci fromGood Housekeeping, 12-01-1996

    • A VICTIM'S MOTHER SUES

    By Georgia Nucci

    I read with astonishment Andy Rooney's column "What's your worth" about the greed (he didn't use the word, but he implied it) of the relatives of victims of Pan Am 103 as demonstrated by their suits against the company.

     Shortly after Pan Am 103 was bombed, I read another column by Mr. Rooney, titled "A corporate victim." In that column he stated: "... I knew too well how Pan Am was doing things. They were doing them badly. It would not have surprised me if the disaster over Scotland turned out to be the airline's fault. ... Was Pan Am's security check on the level with the rest of its operation? ... When passengers checked in for that fatal flight in Frankfurt, did they have enough security people? ... The airline's decline appears to have come as a result of greed and mismanagement."

    Well, Mr. Rooney's suspicions proved true. Pan Am had ample warnings that a bomb would be placed on one of its planes in the two weeks preceding Christmas, on the route between Frankfurt and New York; from a previous security analysis they knew where on the plane a terrorist would attempt to place the bomb for maximum destructive effect. They knew from public announcements who was likely to initiate such an attack, and they even had a photo of the bomb and instructions on how to determine if it were a bomb or a bona fide radio/cassette.

     The radio/cassette could have been revealed by X-ray examination, a technology available to the security people in Frankfurt. The FAA provided directions on how to distinguish between a bomb and a cassette. There were approximately 147 pieces of luggage put on Flight 103 in Frankfort that day. At most, 20 pieces were X-rayed. At the May meeting of family members, "Victims of Pan Am 103," a Mr. Billie Vincent, formerly of the FAA, told our group, "The tragedy of Pan Am 103 was preventable."

     Now, in May, Mr. Rooney stated, "There are going to be lots of lawsuits. Was Pan Am negligent? Is it an airline's fault when a terrorist plants a bomb in a suitcase and smuggles it on board? There is no way to make flights 100 percent safe. For Pan Am, and the passengers who found themselves on board, it was just bad luck. ... The fact is, it isn't usually possible to say who's at fault and how much they owe the people who suffered loss or hurt because of it. There's not always a way to make it right. The only persons who can be blamed in that case were the terrorists who planted the bomb on board the Pan Am plane."

     You talk about making a money game out of someone else's death. It's the only "game" available to us. I lost my only remaining child, my son, Christopher Jones, age 20, on that flight and I want some answers.

     The President won't ask the questions. He refused. Congress doesn't seem willing to. They avoid us. The only way to force Pan Am to give those answers to me, and to other victims' families, and to all the people who continue flying back and forth to Europe, is to take them to court. That's reality.

     My initial reaction was not to sue, and then I got the letter from the insurance company offering me a sum to compensate for my loss and relieve them of the responsibility of accountability. How could I write off my son's life by saying, "OK, I'll just take this settlement and forget my questions"? It would have been simple and it would have spared me what will be years of raking over the same coals. But they can't write off my son's murder that easily. I have a lot of questions for Pan Am and Pan Am will only answer them in court.

     Mr. Rooney says that it's human nature to look "for someone else to blame. ... If it's someone else's fault, it hurts less." Not true at all. And I speak from painful experience. Eleven months before Christopher was murdered, my only other child, Jennifer, age 18, died in Ecuador, South America. She simply got sick and died. No guilt, no anger, no what-ifs. Grieving her death was a much simpler task. I've tried it both ways, so I know. Does Mr. Rooney?

     Let me educate Mr. Rooney on how corporate America works: They respond to bottom-line accounting principles. Witness the debacle of Ford Pinto. Basically it was cheaper to pay off an average of 13 deaths or so a year than to redesign the rear gas tank to make it safer. When lawsuits made it cheaper to redesign, they redesigned. Bottom line.

     I can't fight Pan Am with principles. They don't understand principles. I can only fight them with dollars. When it becomes cheaper to provide adequate security than to be sued, then we will have adequate security. In the meantime, I cannot sit here, knowing what I know about their lack of responsibility to the flying public, and say and do nothing. It can happen again, you know.

     Georgia Nucci is a resident of Claverack.

     
     
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