Two British sisters have reached an out-of-court settlement with Japan Airlines over the death of their father, who died in 1985 in the worst single plane crash in history, the sisters' mother said Monday.
Businessman Akihisa Yukawa was one of 520 passengers and crew members who died aboard JAL Flight 123, which crashed on Aug. 12, 1985.
The mother, Susanne Bayly, would not disclose the settlement figure, saying only that it was an improvement on the 60,000 British pounds (10.8 million yen) JAL had initially offered, but "nowhere near" the 900,000 British pounds they had subsequently demanded in compensation.
At the time of the crash, Yukawa was technically married to a Japanese woman, -- with whom he had had two sons -- although he was living with Bayly, whom he had met while working in London.
Although the latter relationship produced two daughters -- Cassie Yukawa, 20, and 16-year-old Diana Yukawa -- Yukawa's Japanese sons were the only ones to apply for compensation in the immediate wake of the plane crash.
Bayly said she did not consider applying at that time as Yukawa's mother cared for the girls financially.
This arrangement came to a halt, however, when the girls' grandmother died.
The Yukawa sisters first hit the headlines in Britain in March 2000, when, following the examination of DNA evidence, they were legally recognized as Yukawa's children by the High Court in London.
It had previously been reported that JAL would not provide compensation until the question of paternity had been resolved.
The issue of paternity had arisen because, although Yukawa had signed a declaration that Cassie was his daughter, Diana was born after his death.