ALBANY – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has governmental immunity against liability for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by terrorists who set off an explosive-laden van in the underground parking lot, a divided state Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.
Six people were killed in the attack and nearly 1,000 were hurt when the bomb blasted a six-story deep crater under the building. About 180 claims involving 600 plaintiffs were filed, many of them contending that the Port Authority ignored repeated warnings by security experts about the symbolic value of the Trade Center complex as a terrorist target and the vulnerability of its parking garages to vehicles packed with explosives.
