Pugh v. SOCIALIST PEOPLE'S LIBRYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA

530 F. Supp. 2d 216, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2955
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJanuary 15, 2008
DocketCivil Action 02-02026 (HHK)
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 530 F. Supp. 2d 216 (Pugh v. SOCIALIST PEOPLE'S LIBRYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pugh v. SOCIALIST PEOPLE'S LIBRYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA, 530 F. Supp. 2d 216, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2955 (D.D.C. 2008).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

HENRY H. KENNEDY, Jr., District Judge.

This action is brought pursuant to the “terrorism exception” of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”), 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(7), arising from the September 19, 1989 bombing of Union des Transports Aeriens (“UTA”) Flight 772, over the Ten-ere Desert in the African country of Niger. The aircraft operating as UTA Flight 772, a DC-10-30 wide-body aircraft owned by Interlease, Inc. (“Interlease”), was en route to Paris, France from N’Djamena, Chad, when a suitcase bomb in the cargo hold exploded, killing all 170 passengers and crew on board. Seven of the passengers were citizens of the United States. The Estates of the seven American decedents, 44 of their immediate family members, and Interlease are the plaintiffs in this case. Defendants are the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Libyan External Security Organization (“LESO”) (collectively, the “Libyan State *220 Defendants”), and six high-ranking Libyan government officials sued in their personal capacities, Abdallah Senoussi, Ahmed Ab-dallah Elazragh, Ibrahim Naeli, Abras Musbah, Issa Abdelsalam Shibani, and Ab-delsalam Hammouda El Ageli (collectively, the “Individual Libyan Defendants”). All defendants are referred to collectively herein as “Libya” or “Defendants.”

On May 11, 2006, this court granted summary judgment as to liability in favor of plaintiffs and on August 13, 2007, commenced a two and one-half day damages hearing. During the contested hearing, plaintiffs presented the live testimony of eight fact witnesses and four expert witnesses, as well as de bene esse deposition testimony of 29 additional fact witnesses. The expert witnesses presented by plaintiffs were Donald Sommer, an expert on aviation accident analysis and aircraft accident reconstruction, Dr. Richard Levy, an expert on the psychological and physiological effects of traumatic events resulting in death, Steven A. Wolf, a principal with LECG, LLC, an economic and financial consulting company, and Douglas Kelly, the vice-president and chief aircraft appraiser at AVITAS, Inc. Each witness’s testimony was credible and reliable in every pertinent respect. Libya did not present any witnesses. Based upon the evidence presented at the damages trial, the court makes the following:

I.FINDINGS OF FACT

A. The Injuries to the Passengers of UTA Flight 772

1. The fuel in the aircraft that operated as UTA Flight 772 was contained in three places, in the two wings and in the compartment under the fuselage between the two wings. A suitcase bomb exploded in the right forward lower baggage hold of the aircraft about 45 minutes into the flight when it had climbed to approximately 35,000 feet. This caused the airplane to break into four major parts, the nose section, the section between the nose section and the wings, the wing section going back to the tail, and the tail and aft part of the plane.

2. When the bomb exploded, the passengers on the plane experienced “explosive decompression,” which happens when the atmosphere within a plane in flight fills instantly with the atmosphere outside the plane. It takes less than one second for the pressures to equalize.

3. Many of the passengers likely survived the bomb explosion and were conscious as they fell to earth from 35,000 feet. Even if some of the passengers temporarily blacked out, they likely would have regained consciousness as they fell since the effects of hypoxia — lack of oxygen — are reversible and would have quickly been reduced as oxygen levels rose during each victim’s fall to earth.

4. In addition to the initial shock of explosive decompression, a surviving passenger would have experienced the disorienting experience of feeling the temperature instantly drop 129 degrees, from 70 degrees Fahrenheit inside the plane to 49 degrees below zero outside of it. Among other things, this atmospheric change has a very painful physiological effect on the body, particularly if one has trapped gases. These body gases expand and cause extreme discomfort.

5. In addition, the explosion caused shards of metal to fly in every direction, typically embedding themselves into people badly enough to cause pain but not badly enough to kill.

6. Some of the passengers caught on fire from the explosion. As a result, many of the passengers burned alive as they plummeted to earth.

*221 7. Burning to death is extremely painful and does not happen at once. Dr. Levy testified as follows:

[P]eople who are on fire die from lack of oxygen because the fire burns up the oxygen in the atmosphere, the fire burns their upper respiratory passages, the hot gases are at first inhaled, it destroys the lining of their lungs and they cannot exchange oxygen appropriately, and therefore, they basically die of oxygen starvation, which leads to brain damage, and they eventually are unable to maintain necessary functions of life. So certainly many of them [passengers on UTA Flight 772] must have died from fire, but not immediately.

Tr. of Hr’g on Damages (“Tr.”) 24:25-25:9, Aug. 15, 2007.

8. Other unpleasant experiences the passengers likely suffered included loss of control over their sphincters and severe choking sensations.

9. Those that did not die from the explosion or the fire died from the impact with the ground at a velocity of 150 to 160 miles per hour.

10. It took 89 seconds to 178 seconds, between one and one-half minutes to three minutes, for the passengers to hit the ground following the explosion. The range of times reflects variations in the passengers’ trajectories to the ground, based upon where they were seated on the plane.

11. All 170 people aboard [UTA Flight 772] died a horrific death. The many passengers who likely survived the mid-air explosion experienced horrific terror and excruciating pain for as long as three minutes as they were burned alive and tumbled to the earth. The explosion decompression, fire, and mid-air break-up of the aircraft caused the passengers to suffer extreme terror, painful bodily injury, choking and suffocation, and the tragic realization that their lives would soon terminate.

B. Plaintiffs’ Testimony

Estate of Bonnie Barnes Pugh

12. Bonnie Barnes Pugh, a United States citizen, was a passenger on UTA Flight 772. Her Estate was administered in the state of Virginia, where she was domiciled at the time of her death.

13. As the wife of a career diplomat, Mrs. Pugh always was eager to take on the duties of spreading American values and tending to the homemaking needs of the mission of her husband. When her family was posted in Greece, she was active in the Greek-American Woman’s Association, a local civic group dedicated to doing good works in the community. When she lived in Mauritania, she was deeply involved with the Peace Corps there. Her daughter Anne testified that in Mauritania, her mother “did as much as she could to make sure that the people who came to work at the embassy felt that they had a bit of a home base.” Pis.’ Trial Éx. 1, Anne Carey Dep.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Swinney v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2025
Nahadi v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2025
Messina v. Syrian Arab Republic
District of Columbia, 2024
Amirentezam v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2023
Pennington v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2022
Ewan v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2020
Barry v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2020
Akins v. Islamic Republic of Iran
332 F. Supp. 3d 1 (D.C. Circuit, 2018)
Akins v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2018
Fritz v. Islamic Republic of Iran
District of Columbia, 2018
Fritz v. Islamic Republic of Iran
324 F. Supp. 3d 54 (D.C. Circuit, 2018)
Alimanestianu v. United States
130 Fed. Cl. 137 (Federal Claims, 2016)
Thuneibat v. Syrian Arab Republic
167 F. Supp. 3d 22 (District of Columbia, 2016)
Romero v. ITW Food Equipment Group LLC
118 F. Supp. 3d 349 (District of Columbia, 2015)
Mwani v. United States
District of Columbia, 2014
Lanny J. Davis & Associates LLC v. Republic of Equatorial Guinea
962 F. Supp. 2d 152 (District of Columbia, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
530 F. Supp. 2d 216, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2955, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pugh-v-socialist-peoples-libryan-arab-jamahiriya-dcd-2008.