P.M. BRIEFING : Pan Am Sued on Security Fee

A group, including the parents of a bombing victim, sued Pan Am World Airways today, contending that it collected a $5-per-ticket surcharge for security on international flights but never spent the money to protect passengers.

Among those filing suit against Pan Am are Peter and Aphrodite Tsairis, parents of Alexia Tsairis who died when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988.

Richard A. Grossman, an attorney handling the case, said the lawsuit is intended to be a class action for customers who purchased Pan Am tickets from 1986 until 1989.

“Damages could amount to over $100 million, with more than a million passengers in line for refunds plus punitive damages,” he said.

The crash of the Boeing 747 killed 259 passengers and crew, and 11 people on the ground.

Grossman said the airline’s own security expert, Isaac Yeffet, told Pan Am officials almost two years before the Flight 103 crash that the carrier’s security was “almost totally ineffectual” and that leveling a surcharge “could be regarded as fraud.”