COURT AWARDS $19 MILLION IN PAN AM BOMBING

A federal jury awarded $19 million to the widow of a young executive killed in the 1988 crash of Pan Am Flight 103 in one of the largest airline disaster awards ever given to an individual. Faith Pescatore's husband Michael was one of the 259 people killed when a bomb exploded in the airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. He was a Vice-President for British Petroleum Chemicals. In an earlier suit, a federal jury in 1992 found the now-defunct Pan Am airline guilty of repeatedly ignoring warnings that its baggage-security system was inadequate and awarded three families a total of nearly $20 million. The U. S. Supreme Court in January rejected Pan Am's challenge to the award. Pan Am's insurers face more than 137 other suits arising from the bombing.