A total of all 170 people onboard died when Tu-154, operated by St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airlines, crashed August 22 near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on a flight from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg.
"Today we filed 41 suits against Pulkovo Airlines for moral and material damages," Igor Trunov, a defense lawyer, said, adding that another 30 suits were being drafted.
Trunov said 74 plaintiffs demand that they be paid $49 million in moral damages and $110,000 in material damages.
"The plaintiffs lost 73 relatives, including 22 children, in the crash," he said.
Russia's State Transportation Company said in February it disagreed with the findings of the Interstate Aviation Committee on the cause of a passenger jet crash in the summer of 2006. Official investigation said February the crash was the result of a pilot error rather than technical failure.
A storm that raged in the area at the time was initially believed to be the main cause of the accident, but investigators on the Interstate Aviation Commission said the weather had no major adverse effect on the plane's avionics. They also said the crew was not adequately trained to maneuver a plane in complicated weather conditions and that its actions lacked coordination.
