LOS ANGELES : Relatives of 1986 Air Crash Victim Settle for $1.9 Million

The family of a flight attendant killed in the 1986 collision over Cerritos of an Aeromexico airliner and a single-engine plane accepted $1.9 million today to settle a federal lawsuit.

The money will be shared by Mario Cortez, husband of the late Alma Gabriella Cortez, and Teodora Zempoaltecatl, mother of the 23-year-old victim. Both relatives are residents of Mexico City.

Many of the passengers on the Aeromexico DC-9 were on the way home from a Labor Day trip to Mexico when the jetliner collided with a Piper aircraft flown by William Kramer. The crash killed a total of 82 people in the plane and on the ground, including Kramer and two members of his family.

At a 1989 Los Angeles trial, U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon cleared Aeromexico of liability, ruling that the Federal Aviation Administration and Kramer were to blame for the tragedy. A federal appeals court upheld that ruling last year.

The U.S. government has paid out more than $40 million so far, according to Justice Department attorney Steven J. Riegel.

Kramer’s $1-million insurance policy has been deposited with the court, and will be apportioned among the plaintiffs once all the cases are concluded. But it will amount to about 3 cents on the dollar, Riegel said.

Less than half a dozen cases remain, Riegel said, including three involving survivors of people killed on the ground.