Final 9/11 Holdout Kin Fight For "Truth" Trial

Final 9/11 holdout kin fight on for 'truth' trial

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nationa...2JRuppi9FRQotK

By SUSAN EDELMAN
Last Updated: 5:50 PM, January 17, 2010

One 9/11 family is still refusing to walk away from the truth.

The relatives of Mark Bavis -- a 31-year-old pro-hockey scout killed when terrorists slammed United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center -- are the last holdouts for a trial that they say will finally expose the airlines' gaping security failures.

"We can think of no greater honor for Mark than to see improvements of current security, and airlines and screening companies being held accountable for their failures and shortcomings," the family said in a statement to The Post.

The Massachusetts clan, the last family not to take millions of dollars for their silence, wants to reveal in stunning new detail how terrorists got past checkpoints at Boston's Logan International Airport with Mace, boxcutters and jagged knives, weapons used to kill a passenger and a crew member, and gain control of the cockpit.

"We hope they take the ball and run with it as far as they can," said Alyson Low, the sister of a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first to hit the Twin Towers.

Nearly all the next-of-kin of 2,793 people killed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, took payments averaging $1.8 million from the federal 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.

Of the 96 families that chose instead to sue the airlines for negligence and wrongful death, 93 have since settled out of court for a total of $500 million, an average $5 million each.

And two of the last three, the families of flight attendant Sara Low, 28, and Flight 11 passenger Barbara Keating, 72, are finalizing deals.

Bavis, a Boston University hockey star, went on to coach at Harvard and join the NHL's LA Kings as a scout.

Deluged with donations after his death, his family launched the Mark Bavis Leadership Foundation to give scholarships.