 Contributing to the accident was the failure of the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) for undetermined reasons and the inadequate vectoring charts used by the controllers at Medan.The first lawsuit was filed by Nolan Law Group in Chicago, Illinois on September 24, 1998 on behalf of American passengers Fritz and Djoeminah Baden.Additional lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts in Chicago related to many more victims from Indonesia, Germany, Britain, Italy, and Australia.