Concorde families hope for settlement by February

“An offer is already in front of the lawyers which isorientated to U.S Standards and above all bears in mind the claim to psychological damages which is protected by US law,” Baum’s office said in a statement. “The offers from Air France are being negotiated at present. We expect a conclusion to the negotiations in February.”

Baum, a former German interior minister, said as long as there was hope for an agreement the group of lawyers, who he said together represented 95 percent of the 113 victims of the crash in July, saw no necessity for “a risky, expensive, lengthy” suit in the United States.

Relatives of three German victims of the crash filed a suit in New York on Tuesday against operator Air France, Continental Airlines Inc., and several manufacturers.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and charges that each company may be partly responsible for the crash that killed all 109 people on board, and four on the ground in a hotel in the suburb of Gonesse, outside Paris.

Filing suit in the United States creates the potential for far greater damage awards than could be expected in Europe. Most of the Concorde passengers were German tourists on the first leg of a Caribbean cruise vacation.

The son of a German man killed in the crash previously filed a suit against Air France, Continental and others in a Miami federal court in September.

French investigators have said the supersonic Concorde rolled over a thin metal strip that dropped on to the runway from a Continental aircraft. A tyre burst, blasting fragments into the fuel tank, which caught fire and caused the fiery crash shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport.