£2.4 million for Briton's family after skydive tragedy
The family of a London woman killed in a plane crash while trying to conquer her fear of heights has been awarded £2.4 million in compensation.
Victoria Delacroix, 22, from Beckenham, took a skydiving trip in the US, where she was a volunteer worker at a summer camp for disabled people.
She sent a text message to her family to say she was about to jump, but the plane's compressor turbine blade failed and the aircraft hit a utility pole and a tree before exploding, killing six of the eight people on board.
A jury in Franklin County, Missouri, awarded bereaved families £2.4 million each and ordered engineering company Doncasters, which manufactured the component that failed, to pay £17 million in punitive damages.
Victoria's mother, Susan Delacroix, said at the time of the crash in 2006: "Victoria was a sweet, caring girl who was adored by everyone."
Also killed in the crash were Melissa Berridge, 38, Robert Cook, 22, Scott Cowan, 42, Rob Walsh, 44, and David Pasternoster, 34.
Doncasters' chief executive Bill Ellis was "surprised and disappointed" by the ruling. He added: "We stand behind the airworthiness of our products. We believe we have strong grounds to overturn the judgment."
