The federal suit filed in New York seeks $25 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages for each of the 76 families represented in the legal action, said Lee Kreindler, the attorney for the families. The MD-11 aircraft crashed off Peggy's Cove on September 2, 1998, after the pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. Canadian investigators said that cockpit insulation retrieved from the ocean floor revealed a significant amount of fire damage and that the thermal blanket-like material probably helped spread the fire aboard the aircraft. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. "This is a supplemental consolidated suit prompted by our discovery last week that metalized Mylar had played a very significant part in the spread of the fire,"Kreindler told Reuters.

Kreindler said Mylar is manufactured by DuPont. DuPont spokeswoman Susan Gaffney did not comment on the lawsuits. But she said DuPont, based in Wilmington, Delaware, did not make the insulation. "We do not make thermal blanket insulation. DuPont is a raw materials supplier, and we sell raw materials to insulation manufacturers, who, in turn, make these products according to specifications provided by airline manufacturers," she said. Kreindler said that his firm could not determine who manufactured the blankets.

"You might say we can't complete the circle. We have enough with ... DuPont which made the material," Kreindler said. "The properties of the material were known before the accident," Kreindler said. "How could it be that the FAA permitted airplanes to fly with this material? "There is something approaching outrage on the part of many of the families that this situation could have existed. The families don't want this swept under the rug." The FAA said last week it wasplanning to order the replacement of insulation blankets in nearly 700 aircraft within four years to reduce the risk of fire.

The FAA said its testing found that the metalized Mylar used to cover some insulation could be ignited easily and spread flame across the blanket. Kreindler has already sued Swissair, Boeing Co and McDonnell Douglas, now owned by Boeing, in connection with the crash. Another suit related to the crash was filed against DuPont earlier this week in Los Angeles. Also named were the aircraft's maker and two companies involved in a modification "which could have led to the spark source," according to attorneys representing families. The lawsuits involved seven wrongful death cases, all people who lived in France or Switzerland.