Relatives of 5 Cerritos Crash Victims File Death Claims

Relatives of five people killed in the collision of an Aeromexico jetliner and small plane over Cerritos Aug. 31 filed negligence suits Tuesday against the airline and the estate of the pilot of the other plane.

The first known suits since the disaster were filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of two Mexican families by the office of San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli, and in Norwalk Superior Court on behalf of a South Gate family by Inglewood lawyer Harold Sullivan.

Sullivan’s $20-million suit was filed on behalf of Bethzaida Gutierrez and her two children, Hector Jr., 3, and Daniel, 2. Gutierrez’s husband, Hector Sr., 22, was on the Los Angeles-bound Aeromexico flight, said Sullivan’s law clerk, Joe Rosenblit.

Rosenblit said Hector Gutierrez’s mother was also killed in the crash, but Sullivan was not representing her in the lawsuit.

Claims by Mexican Family

Carlos and Guadalupe Lopez, of Navojoa in the Mexican state of Sonora, and their eldest son, Carlos Jr., 13, were aboard the airliner when it collided with the Piper Cherokee Archer and plunged into several houses, killing all 67 people aboard the planes. Fifteen people on the ground are presumed dead.

The suit was filed on behalf of the Lopez’s three surviving children--two daughters and one son--ages 5 to 11.

At the time of the crash, Carlos Jr.’s parents were bringing him to Anaheim to enroll at St. Catherine’s Military School.

Joining the suit were Humberto and Justina Gonzalez, also of Navojoa, whose daughter, Dinorah, 17, was accompanying the Lopez family to begin her senior high school year at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Canada Flintridge.

The suit asks for unspecified general and punitive damages against Aeromexico and the estate of William Kramer, the Palos Verdes pilot of the small plane, whose wife and daughter also were killed in the crash.

Caesar Belli, Melvin Belli’s son and a member of Belli’s firm, said when filing the suit that a wrongful death claim was filed Monday on behalf of the two families against the Federal Aviation Administration.

If the claim for compensation is denied, the FAA will be added to the suit, Caesar Belli said.

The Aeromexico DC-9 was under the guidance of FAA air traffic controllers at Los Angeles International Airport when Kramer’s small Piper rammed the tail of the jet.

The air traffic controller monitoring the jetliner told investigators that he did not see Kramer’s plane on his radar screen. Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board are trying to determine what caused the collision.

Sharon Mayhugh, a spokeswoman for Belli, said suits are being prepared on behalf of the families of other crash victims, but declined to name any other possible plaintiffs.