"It'll be a hell of fight -- a 20-rounder," says TIME contributor Jerry Hannafin, who has covered hundreds of air disasters for the magazine. Whenever there's a crash, Hannafin explains, ambulance chasers rush in to solicit business from grieving relatives. "It's a very lucrative business," he says, "and they're very good at it." Along with the obvious targets for litigation -- the airline and the plane manufacturer, who must show that they were not negligent -- prospective defendants can extend as far as the Federal Aviation Agency, for failing to catch problems during inspections. Chances are good that some malfunction or human error will eventually be pinned on someone along the way, although it could take a long time -- a decade or longer, "or until either side runs out of money," says Hannafin. "If the defendant is lucky," he says, "you'll get it declared an act of God." Less lucky, one suspects, will be the person who gets to break the news to Jake LaMotta.
LaMotta's Last Match
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Even a career spent absorbing the punishment dealt by the likes of Sugar
Ray Robinson couldn't have prepared Jake LaMotta for the
blow he suffered
last week when his son Joseph died in the crash of Swissair flight 111. But
on Wednesday the boxer came out swinging: He filed a $125 million
negligence suit against Swissair,
McDonnell Douglas, Boeing and Delta -- the first to emerge from the crash
that killed 229 people.