U.S. lawsuit filed against Boeing over Spanish air crash

The lawsuit was filed at a court in Chicago where the firm has its headquarters, lawyer Manuel Von Ribbeck told a news conference in Las Palmas, the capital of Spain’s Canary Islands.

It aims to determine if faults in the plane was to blame for the crash, Spain’s deadliest aviation accident in 25 years, since two other MD-80 series planes have crashed over the past year, he added.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of two Spanish families and one from Sweden, von Ribbeck said, adding he was meeting with more victims’ families and other lawsuits could follow.

Only 18 people survived after the packed Spanair MD-82 plane slammed into the ground tail-first and burst into flames just seconds after taking off Aug. 20 from Madrid’s airport for Las Palmas.

An investigation into the causes of the accident is underway. Press reports have put the blame on engine failure or faulty landing flaps.

Several other family members of victims of the crash on Tuesday filed a civil suit at a Spanish court in Madrid over the accident.

Last week the family members of the two French nationals who died in the crash also said they planned to take legal action.

Boeing bought the makers of the MD-80 series, McDonnell Douglas, in 1997.

In September 2007 a MD-82 belonging to low-cost Thai airline One-Two-Go crashed in Phuket in the south of Thailand, killing 90 people.

Two months later a MD-83 plane belonging to Turkish low-cost airline Atlasjet crashed in southwestern Turkey, killing 57 people.