A settlement has been reached in the only case to go to trial following the crash of Continental Flight 3407 in Clarence Center. All 49 passengers and homeowner Douglas Wielinski were killed when the plane crashed into Wielinski's house in February 2009. After an investigation, the crash was blamed on pilot error.
The settlement was announced in State Supreme Court in Buffalo late Thursday morning after more than a month of testimony. The amount of the settlement is confidential.
Speaking to reporters afterward, widow Karen Wielinski said "Doug would be very proud."
"Part of wanting to go to trial was to, in my mind, make the airlines see what a family has gone through after such a tragedy and to verify that Doug was a good man," Wielinski said.
"That has been one of the hardest things in this trial, to feel that we have to justify what kind of man he was."
Much of the testimony in the trial revolved around Doug Wielinski's extensive and valuable collection of sports memorabilia, which was destroyed in the crash.
Lawyers for Continental Airlines, the plane's operator Colgan Air, and its parent, Pinnacle Airlines, declined to comment about the case.