Judge: Agency not liable in 9/11 lawsuit

The Massachusetts agency that operates Boston's Logan Airport had no legal responsibility for security failures that allowed armed terrorists to board flights on Sept. 11, a Manhattan federal judge ruled Wednesday as he narrowed the first trial of a hijack victim's lawsuit this fall.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein also said that the mere fact that hijackers were able to somehow get knives and Mace aboard United Flight 175 would not be enough to prove negligence by the airline in the death of hockey scout Mark Bavis, who died on the flight.

"I don't envision a recitation of all the things that happened on Sept. 11 and an argument that it couldn't have happened without negligence," Hellerstein told a lawyer for the family of Bavis, who scouted for the Los Angeles Kings.

Bavis' mother, Mary Bavis, 81, is the only relative of a hijacking victim who pursued a suit instead of taking a payment from the federal Sept. 11 fund. The Nov. 7 trial will focus on alleged negligence by United and Huntleigh USA, which operated United's security checkpoints at Logan in 2001.

His brothers, Patrick and Michael Bavis, attended yesterday's hearing, and were dismayed that Hellerstein brushed aside arguments that Massport -- the state agency that runs Logan -- had overall responsibility for the checkpoints and ignored red flags about lax procedures.

"We felt strongly that they were a party that could have prevented this," said Michael Bavis. "They failed to take action, and inaction cost thousands of lives on Sept. 11."

The suit alleges that checkpoint failures allowed Mohammed Atta and other hijackers to smuggle weapons onto the flight. Court papers claim some screeners didn't know what Mace was, and procedures weren't tightened despite federal warnings of a terror threat.

The suit also says that lax onboard security allowed the hijackers to invade the cockpit and take control of the plane. United says its screening and onboard security complied with all Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

Hellerstein did make some key rulings in the Bavis family's favor Wednesday. He said that while the focus of the trial will be whether United complied with regulations, jurors will also be asked to judge whether the airline met some broader standard of reasonable care.

He said that the burden will be on United to show that whatever weapons got on the plane could have escaped detection even if screening was operated properly. And he said the family will be able to collect damages for 21 minutes of "pre-impact terror" endured by Bavis between the hijacking and the crash.

But Michael Bavis, Mark's twin brother, said damages was a secondary goal to the trial itself. "My family," he said, "has never been able to walk away without a full airing of the facts."