## Facts

- Pan American World Airways Flight 759, a Boeing 727, crashed in Kenner, Louisiana shortly after takeoff from Moisant International Airport on July 9, 1982.
- All 154 people aboard died; eyewitness accounts described a sudden descent shortly after takeoff and an explosion on impact.
- Investigators concluded microburst wind shear contributed to the accident.
- Uruguayan citizens and residents, as heirs and estate representatives of Uruguayan decedents, filed wrongful-death and survival actions in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
- Defendants included Pan Am (and, in the district court proceedings, Boeing and the New Orleans Aviation Board).
- Pan Am moved to dismiss on forum non conveniens, arguing Uruguay was the more appropriate forum because plaintiffs resided there and damages evidence would be located there.
- The district court denied dismissal; Pan Am appealed, and the Fifth Circuit heard the consolidated forum non conveniens issue en banc.

## Issues

1. Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Pan Am’s forum non conveniens motion seeking dismissal in favor of Uruguay.
2. Whether, under Gulf Oil and Piper, the private- and public-interest factors strongly favored Uruguay notwithstanding the crash’s Louisiana location and related evidence.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit (en banc) affirmed the denial of forum non conveniens dismissal.
- The court held the district court did not abuse its discretion in retaining the actions in Louisiana federal court.
- The court concluded Pan Am failed to carry its burden to show that the balance of private and public factors strongly favored Uruguay.

## Legal Principles

- Forum non conveniens is committed to the district court’s sound discretion; appellate review is for abuse of discretion.
- A plaintiff’s forum choice receives substantial deference; a foreign plaintiff may receive reduced, but not eliminated, deference.
- Dismissal is appropriate only when an adequate alternative forum exists and the Gulf Oil private- and public-interest factors strongly favor the alternative forum.
- Concentration of liability evidence and key witnesses in the forum (e.g., accident site, operational events, investigators, and local response) can outweigh the foreign location of damages proof.
- Strong local interest in adjudicating a local mass-disaster, and administrative advantages of trying closely connected claims where they arose, support retaining jurisdiction.

## Conclusion

The en banc Fifth Circuit sustained the district court’s refusal to dismiss on forum non conveniens, emphasizing the deferential standard of review and concluding that Louisiana’s substantial connection to the crash and the concentration of relevant evidence and public interests prevented Pan Am from showing Uruguay was clearly the more appropriate forum.


In re Air Crash Disaster Near New Orleans, La., on July 9, 1982, 821 F.2d 1147 (5th Cir. 1987) (en banc)