Northrop Ordered to Pay Over Brazil Crash

A Brazilian judge has ordered U.S. aerospace company Northrop Grumman Corp. to pay $1.1 million to the families of 45 victims of an October 1996 plane crash. “There is more than enough evidence that the accident was caused by a malfunctioning reverse thrust mechanism manufactured by Northrop,” Judge Romulo Russo said Tuesday, a day after he handed down his decision in the class-action lawsuit. Calls to Northrop’s Los Angeles offices and to its lawyer in Brazil seeking comment were not immediately returned. The TAM Airlines Fokker 100 crashed Oct. 31, 1996, into the crowded Sao Paulo neighborhood of Jabaquara, killing 96 people on board and three on the ground.