Missouri Court Upholds $28M Damages in Sky Diving Deaths

A Missouri Court of Appeals has restored $28 million in punitive damages to the families of five people who died in the crash of a skydiving plane shortly after takeoff from a rural Missouri airport.

Six people died when the plane crashed in July 2006 at Sullivan Regional Airport about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

In 2011, a Franklin County jury ordered Doncasters Inc. to pay $28 million in punitive damages and $20 million in compensatory damages to five of the families. The sixth family did not join in the lawsuit.

The trial judge stripped the punitive damages from the award and the families appealed.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the appeals court restored the $28 million on Tuesday and denied Doncasters’ request for a new trial.