By Reuters

Philadelphia - A Swissair lawyer criticized lawyers for the relatives of 229 people who died aboard Swissair Flight 111 last year, accusing them on Wednesday of trying to win the case in the media.

Desmond Barry is representing Swissair in a $16 billion liability battle being waged in U.S. District Court. He was responding to a summary of "facts, theories and contentions," which a committee of plaintiffs' lawyer filed on Tuesday at the behest of U.S. District Judge James Giles.

The summary alleges among other things that defendants including Swissair knew aircraft wiring coated with an insulation material called Kapton was vulnerable to superheating, or arcing, before the carrier bought the MD-11 in 1991. It crashed off Nova Scotia.

"We have already said we'll pay full compensatory damages under the applicable law," said Barry, speaking by telephone from London. "What does it get them to make accusations like this?

"I've never seen a document like this in my 27 years of legal practice. I don't know what it is," he said.

"This, I would reluctantly view as more a PR effort than a legal effort. It's nothing more to me than trying to litigate this case in the press."

Leading lawyers on the plaintiffs' committee were not immediately available to respond to Barry's remarks.

The document in question outlines claims of wrongdoing that relatives of the crash victims hope to substantiate when the discovery phase begins in the 167 cases that have been filed to date.

The summary was meant to help Giles assess how far plaintiffs can go to establish the alleged culpability of defendants who include Swissair, code-share partner Delta Air Lines Inc., aircraft maker Boeing Co., Swissair's parent SAirGroup, and SR Technics AG, an SAirGroup subsidiary.

Giles has been pressing both sides to reach out-of-court settlements.

Another defendant is Interactive Flight Technologies Inc. , which provided the entertainment system that investigators believe may have been implicated in a fire believed to have caused the Sept. 2, 1998, crash off Nova Scotia.

Minutes before the MD-11 aircraft plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, the flight crew reported smoke in the cabin.

Plaintiffs also contend that the companies knew insulation blankets made of metalized Mylar were likely to spread fire and that Mylar and Kapton-coated wiring were especially hazardous when placed in close proximity.

DuPont Co., maker of both Mylar and Kapton, is being sued by the same plaintiffs for $3.8 billion in a separate lawsuit.

Defendants are expected to address accusations in the plaintiffs' summary in a filing on Tuesday.