Settlement Reached in Suit Over United Crash in Iowa : Transportation: Nine people involved in the 1989 accident work out a deal with the carrier, the engine maker and McDonnell Douglas.

Attorneys in the largest lawsuit resulting from the 1989 crash of a United Airlines jet in which 112 people died reached an out-of-court settlement, a judge said Monday.

Lawyers for the estates of two people killed in the crash in Sioux City, Iowa, and seven people who survived were prepared to argue that United, McDonnell Douglas Corp., which made the DC-10, and the maker of the jet engine should pay damages.

Weekend negotiations ended in a settlement late Sunday, and U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon accepted the agreement.

Attorneys wouldn’t release details of the settlement, except to say that it included no formal finding of liability by United and other defendants. One attorney, who requested anonymity, said that settlements were different for each plaintiff and that the total was in the millions of dollars.

“We didn’t expect this case to be settled, but there was a dramatic shift once they realized we were ready to go,” said David Rapoport, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “The amount suggests an admission of their guilt.”

Jack Barry, an attorney for Long Beach-based McDonnell Douglas, said the settlement was merely fair compensation for the victims.

“We’ve settled 207 cases so far,” Barry said. “We’re trying to settle with all these people. They all got hurt. We paid fair and just compensatory damages for those who were injured.”

Government investigators determined that the July 19, 1989, accident occurred after a metal fan disk disintegrated in flight, hurling engine parts through the tail assembly and severing the plane’s hydraulic system.

Flight 232, traveling from Denver to Chicago, cartwheeled down a runway, broke into pieces and burst into flames as it attempted an emergency landing.

The crash killed 112 people, while 184 people survived, including the jet’s pilot.

The federal case was the only one seeking punitive damages. Forty-five lawsuits have been settled, and others are pending in state courts.

“The real issue was punitive damages,” said Edward Stillman, an attorney for an Indiana family of four who survived the crash and were among the lawsuit’s nine plaintiffs. “They thought they were vulnerable to it and we did, too.”

In addition to Chicago-based United and McDonnell Douglas, named in the lawsuit were Alcoa of Pittsburg, Ohio, which made the titanium metal for the disk, and Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric, which manufactured the fan disk.