9/11 compensation agreed ($7 B to be paid to families)

[papau]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1240243,00.html


9/11 compensation agreed ($7 B to be paid to families)

George Wright and agencies
Wednesday June 16, 2004

The US government's compensation fund for victims of the September 11 attacks completed its work today, agreeing to pay $7bn (£4bn) to more than 5,000 claimants.

Under the law that created the fund, nearly three years ago, administrators had until midnight to decide how much each applicant would receive. The average payment for a death claim is about $2.1m.

The vast majority of families of the 2,973 people killed signed on with the fund, thereby forgoing the chance to sue airlines and security companies for alleged negligence.

As well as the death claims, more than 4,400 injury applications were filed, 2,675 of which were accepted. Most of the injury claims were for lung-related problems suffered by rescuers who worked on the pile of burning Ground Zero debris in the days immediately following the attacks. Payments range from $500 to $8.6m. <snip>

In what Mr Feinberg said was a sign of the fund's success, only 70 lawsuits were filed against the airlines whose planes were hijacked in the attacks on New York and Washington; about 30 families filed neither a lawsuit nor an application with the fund.