9/11 liability cases given go-ahead

Boeing: "Terrorism, not negligence"

A US federal judge has allowed lawsuits over the 11 September attacks to proceed against airlines, aircraft makers and operators of the World Trade Center.

Litigation has been initiated by about 70 people who were either injured in the attacks in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, or whose relatives died.

Defendants include American Airlines, United Airlines, aircraft manufacturer Boeing and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the World Trade Center.

The defendants said they would launch an immediate appeal against New York District Judge Alvin Hellerstein's ruling, arguing the suicide attacks had been impossible to guard against.

We continue to believe that we are not liable for the events that occurred that day Todd Burke American Airlines spokesman

"As far as we're concerned, the issue is terrorism, not negligence," said Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said responsibility lay with "the murderers who led the attacks".

United Airlines and American Airlines said they would be making a swift appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We continue to believe that we are not liable for the events that occurred that day," said American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke.

Mr Burke added that his company believed that the government's Victim's Compensation Fund (VCF) remained "the fairest, most efficient method for compensating" the plaintiffs.

December deadline

Judge Hellerstein rejected the defendants' call for the lawsuits to be blocked, ruling that "each of these defendants owed duties to the plaintiffs who sued them".

"At this early stage of the case and in the absence of a factual record, I find that plaintiffs have pleaded sufficient facts to allege legal proximate cause [for seeking damages]," he concluded.

The BBC's Jane Standley in New York says court officials are now preparing for a possible deluge of cases in the coming weeks, as people bereaved on 11 September choose lawsuits over government compensation.

They have until 22 December to accept compensation from the VCF for their injuries or loss - but in return they must give up their right to sue.

Less than half of those entitled have stated an interest in applying to the VCF.

Many have instead been waiting for this court ruling, our correspondent says.

More than 3,000 people were killed in the airline attacks on New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and in the crash of a fourth hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.