BERLIN (AP) _ Negotiations with Air France over compensation for the Concorde crash have broken off, a German lawyer representing dozens of relatives of crash victims said Monday. He said he plans to sue.
Berlin lawyer Burkhard Koetke said the lawsuit would be filed in New York, the doomed plane's intended destination. He declined to give the total amount of the suit, but he said each relative is seeking between $300,000 and $3.5 million.
"What Air France offered was absolutely unacceptable,'' he said without giving details.
Lawyers representing other victims are still negotiating with the airline, Koetke said. One of those lawyers, Christof Wellens, said he expected an agreement with the airline by the end of next month.
"The negotiations are running at a high intensity and with the great will of both sides toward agreement,'' he said.
The Concorde went down July 25 near Paris in a fiery crash that killed 113 people. Last week, French investigators said it appears "more and more probable'' that debris from a punctured tire hit a fuel tank and sparked the fire that caused the crash.
In its report, the French Accident and Inquiry Office said investigators had uncovered new details to explain what caused the supersonic jet to go down. Debris from a burst tire struck a fuel tank, according to the report, causing shock waves to rupture the tank from within.
In earlier reports, investigators said they thought the tank broke apart after it was penetrated by debris flung at a high speed.
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