Airline defendants to pay $95 million in 9/11 settlement

Insurers for American Airlines, United Airlines and other aviation defendants have agreed to pay $95 million to settle claims that security lapses led planes to be hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The settlement was described in papers filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. Developers of the new World Trade Center buildings had once demanded $3.5 billion from aviation-related companies after hijacked planes destroyed three skyscrapers among five demolished buildings on Sept. 11, 2001.
In total, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 terror attacks, which were claimed by al Qaeda and its then leader Osama bin Laden.

Just six weeks before the attacks, Mr Silverstein had signed a 99-year lease for the site, which is jointly owned by New York and New Jersey.

The airlines’ insurers are understood to be covering the cost of the payout.