Families of airline passengers who died in the Dunkeswick crash tragedy have won their battle for compensation but vowed to continue a fight for improved safety for air travel.

The families launched a legal challenge to secure damages over the crash which claimed the lives of nine passengers and three crew when a Knight Air flight bound for Aberdeen plunged from the sky only minutes after taking off from Leeds-Bradford Airport on May 24, 1995.

An inquest jury returned verdicts of accidental death on the 12 after hearing the tragedy had been blamed on technical difficulties on board the aircraft which left the pilot and first officer flying blind in a thunderstorm.

Solicitors immediately began action to secure landmark compensation, branding as 'disgraceful' existing levels of damages limited to £80,000 under the 70-year-old Warsaw Convention covering air disasters.

Now Roy Grant, solicitor for eight of the nine families which include three from Bradford, has announced settlements of claims had been agreed after Court action in the High Court in Leeds and in France.

He said he was pleased agreement had been reached following lengthy negotiations with insurers.

Exact terms of the deal were being kept under wraps but Mr Grant said the settlements were well above the Warsaw Convention limit and were acceptable to the families.

"These settlements have allowed the families, particularly those with young children, to be provided for at a time when their financial needs are greatest," he said.

"While the precise terms of the settlements must remain confidential, I am able to say that the proceedings before the courts did facilitate an acceptable settlement to enable the families to finally come to terms with this terrible tragedy and to look to the future.

"The families are satisfied and relieved that the matter is now settled. It has been hard for them to come to terms with it.

"They have received some compensation and some sort of justice has been done."

Mr Grant added: "We wanted this to be a landmark case because the Warsaw Convention is already being challenged in some areas. It has been an important case.

"The families are satisfied that their actions have highlighted the outmoded restricted system of compensation laid down by the Warsaw Convention and have hopefully added some weight to the wave of opinion to have this limit swept aside."

Among the victims in the crash were Raymond Nettleton, 51, of Baildon, Christopher Tonkin, 32, of Crosshills, and Irene Wolsey, 73, of Eccleshill.

Mrs Wolsey's son Peter, 44, who lives near Aberdeen, said he was not part of the larger compensation process but would continue to keep up pressure in particular on smaller airlines over safety.

"The thing that most concerns us remains the safety of smaller aircraft and we would like the regulations changed - money never compensates for the loss of somebody," he said.

"There is effectively a dual standard of safety between large and small aircraft and people should be aware of that.

"I am sure everybody's heart is in the right place but nothing gets done unless pressure is kept up. It's not something you can ever come to terms with.

"Never a day goes by when I don't think of the accident and how horrific it was for the people involved and I am sure that goes for all the other families.

"I don't want anybody else to have to live with it too."

The settlement does not include compensation for the family of stewardess Helen Leadbetter, 22, of Westcroft Avenue, Shelf, pilot Captain John Casson, 49, of Sowerby Bridge, and co-pilot Paul Denton, 29, of Highburton, Huddersfield, which is being pursued separately as employees of Knight Air.

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