American, United Airlines to face 9/11 trial

American Airlines and United Continental must face trial over a lawsuit in which the lease holders of the World Trade Center allege that lax security allowed hijackers to destroy the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, AFP reports. Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York on Tuesday rejected a motion by American and United to have World Trade Center Properties' suit seeking compensation thrown out. The "defendants' motion is denied," the judge ruled, court papers show. "The overlap between WTCP's insurance recovery and its potential tort recovery presents issues of fact requiring trial." Al-Qaeda terrorists in hijacked planes from the two airlines smashed into the World Trade Center's biggest skyscrapers on 9/11, demolishing both in a fiery collapse that killed nearly 3,000 people. The owners had paid $2.805 billion for the lease to the World Trade Center only two months before. WTCP says that the airlines' poor security at the time was to blame for their losses. "But for the Aviation Defendant's negligence, the terrorists could not have boarded and hijacked the aircraft and flown them into the Twin Towers," the plaintiff alleges. In his ruling, Hellerstein imposed a limit on what WTCP can seek of $2.805 billion -- the value of the lease, rather than the plaintiff's original sum of $8.4 billion, which it said would amount to a replacement for the lost towers. The airlines had argued that WTCP had no right to seek further compensation as it has already received $4.091 billion in insurance money.

American Airlines and United Continental must face trial over a lawsuit in which the lease holders of the World Trade Center allege that lax security allowed hijackers to destroy the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, AFP reports. Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York on Tuesday rejected a motion by American and United to have World Trade Center Properties' suit seeking compensation thrown out. The "defendants' motion is denied," the judge ruled, court papers show. "The overlap between WTCP's insurance recovery and its potential tort recovery presents issues of fact requiring trial." Al-Qaeda terrorists in hijacked planes from the two airlines smashed into the World Trade Center's biggest skyscrapers on 9/11, demolishing both in a fiery collapse that killed nearly 3,000 people. The owners had paid $2.805 billion for the lease to the World Trade Center only two months before. WTCP says that the airlines' poor security at the time was to blame for their losses. "But for the Aviation Defendant's negligence, the terrorists could not have boarded and hijacked the aircraft and flown them into the Twin Towers," the plaintiff alleges. In his ruling, Hellerstein imposed a limit on what WTCP can seek of $2.805 billion -- the value of the lease, rather than the plaintiff's original sum of $8.4 billion, which it said would amount to a replacement for the lost towers. The airlines had argued that WTCP had no right to seek further compensation as it has already received $4.091 billion in insurance money.

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