The Massachusetts Port Authority could be charged billions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit filed by the owners of the World Trade Center who are accusing the agency of “abysmal” security at Logan Airport on September 11, 2001, when two outbound jets were hijacked in the attacks.
According to the Boston Herald, the suit could expose airport security blunders to a jury who could award the plaintiffs a staggering sum of money. The suit — one of the last linked to the attacks 11 years ago today — could give the country its first courtroom airing of airport security blunders, and might end in a staggering $2.8 billion or more award.
“This could be bigger than your wildest imagination,” said attorney Don Migliori, a partner in the Motley Rice law firm in Providence, an expert on 9/11 litigation. “You don’t have any idea what will happen if this goes to a jury. Anything can happen.”
Just yesterday, lawyers for World Trade Center Properties, which holds the lease on the twin towers, appealed to federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan to set a trial date immediately.
The suit is holding the Massachusetts Port Authority, otherwise known as “Massport”, American Airlines, United Airlines and other aviation companies liable for the destruction of the towers.
“WTC lawyers argue the destruction could have been avoided if Massport responded to reports of strangers casing the airport — later proven to be the terrorists — or addressed lapses at airport checkpoints,” the Herald reports.
If the case comes to trial, these and other confidential details of security failures at Logan could be exposed.
“This now opens the door for embarrassing information to surface again. Massport is not off the hook. Security at Logan was a joke,” said Brian Sullivan, a retired Federal Aviation Administration special agent who warned about the lapses months before the attacks.
WTC owners are still paying on a 99-year lease on the destroyed towers and say they’ve lost more than $8 billion since the attacks. Insurance reimbursed them about half of that amount. The owners leased the towers for $2.8 billion — the sum the judge is allowing them to sue for — from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey just two months before the terrorist attacks.
Two new towers are about a year from completion.
A Massport spokeswoman declined to comment on the suit, saying it was pending litigation.
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