9/11 LEGAL JOURNEY ENDS
Case against Massport reaches settlement
The exhaustive legal battle over how terrorists stormed the cockpits of two airliners out of Logan International Airport on Sept. 11, 2001, slamming the jets into Manhattan’s Twin Towers is over.
“This is the end of the legal case, but not the end for the families of the nearly 3,000 killed that day,” said Thomas P. Glynn, Massport’s chief executive.
“We are relieved,” Glynn told the Herald yesterday. “Massport was not implicated in any way.”
The developer of the World Trade Center sued Massport and “aviation defendants” saying the towers were toppled due to lax security in Boston.
This week, insurers for American Airlines and United Airlines agreed to pay $95 million to World Trade Center Properties to close the case. It was the last property or wrongful death suit linked to the 9/11 attacks. The suit states the payout “resolves” all claims against Massport.
Bud Perrone, spokesman for WTC Properties owner Larry Silverstein, said last night they are “pleased with the resolution” as they pick up speed with the rebuilding of the Manhattan landmark.
“We are currently devoting our attention to the ongoing construction of 3 World Trade Center, which we will open in the spring, and to the development of 2 World Trade Center,” he said. World Trade Center Properties has collected $3.5 billion in insurance money to help with the massive rebuild.
The 104-floor “Freedom Tower,” or 1 World Trade Center, has risen from the ashes of the collapsed towers and now reaches high into the city’s skyline.
Silverstein was seeking an estimated $1 billion from Massport and the airlines due to their failure to catch the 10 al-Qaeda hijackers — most with ties to Saudi Arabia — who crashed American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 into the North and South towers.
The flights left Logan at 7:59 a.m. and 8:14 a.m., respectively. There was a total of 157 people on board — including the hijackers — all of whom perished.
Two other hijacked airplanes also crashed that day — one into the Pentagon and the other in Shanksville, Pa.
Now-retired Federal Aviation Administration special agent Brian Sullivan said last night he was “stunned” by the settlement.
“World Trade Center Properties won,” he said. “Massport gets off the hook — except in the court of public opinion.
“The biggest lesson we’ve learned is the traveling public still needs to stay on their toes,” Sullivan said. “They are our eyes and ears. Forget political correctness — if you see something suspicious, report and react.”
Sullivan — citing last week’s dismal showing by the Transportation Security Administration that failed 80 percent of undercover security stings — said airports need to realize they will always be targets for al-Qaeda and now ISIS.
“If you don’t learn from history, you’re bound to repeat it,” he cautioned. “The threat is still there.”
Others who worked on the case cited Massport’s failure to spot Mohamed Atta — the ringleader of the Logan highjacking cell — casing out Logan Airport security in May, just months before the 9/11 attacks. That and the failure to heed warnings of increased terrorist activity were highlighted as failures in Boston.
Massport spokesman Matthew Brelis said in a statement the agency “maintained it had no legal responsibility for the terrorists’ attack.
“But,” he added, “that will not lessen our resolve and constant dedication to the safety and security of our airport and seaport facilities.”