In Re Air Crash Disaster Near Papeete, Tahiti

OPINION AND ORDER

Before ALFRED P. MURRAH, Chairman, and JOHN MINOR WISDOM, EDWARD WEINFELD, EDWIN A. ROBSON, WILLIAM H. BECKER, JOSEPH S. LORD, III * and STANLEY A. WEIGEL, Judges of the Panel. PER CURIAM.

A Boeing 727 aircraft, being operated as Pan American Flight No. 816, crashed into the ocean shortly after takeoff from the airport at Papeete, Tahiti, on July 22, 1973. The plane was departing following an intermediate stop in its route from Auckland, New Zealand, to Los Angeles, California. Sixty-nine passengers and ten crew members died as a result of the crash. Neither the wreckage of…