Minn. jury awards $16M+ in crash of Cirrus plane

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. (AP) - A jury in northern Minnesota has awarded more than $16 million to the families of two Grand Rapids men who died in a plane crash near Hill City in 2003.

The jurors decided that Duluth-based airplane maker Cirrus Design Corp., the University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation and pilot Gary Prokop were all negligent in the crash.

Cirrus made the plane that crashed on Jan. 18, 2003, killing Prokop and his friend and passenger, James Kosak.

The Itasca County jury determined that the UND foundation and Cirrus were negligent in their training of Prokop.

Jurors awarded Kosak's family $7.4 million and Prokop's family $9 million - it would have been $12 million had he not been found to be 25 percent negligent for the crash.