A California family was awarded $17.8 million in compensation by a U.S. federal court following the death of four of its members in 2008 when a malfunctioning Navy combat plane crashed into their neighbourhood.

According to Associated Press (AP), U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller ordered the U.S Department of Justice to pay the victims' surviving family members, which include the patriarch Don Yoon and the immediate relatives of Seokim Kim Lee, mother of Yoon's wife.

The Yoons were immigrant from South Korea and were living in San Diego when the U.S. Marine plane crashed into their home and incinerated too an adjacent house, local media reports said.

Apart from Yoon's mother-in-law, AP identified the fatalities as Youngmi Lee, Yoon's wife and the couple's young children, Rachel and Grace.

In his ruling, Miller set aside Yoon's original claim of $56 million, which his lawyers said were to cover for monetary and emotional losses, but ordered the Justice Department to pay the $17.8 million to the Korean family to compensate for their deep loss over the tragic accident.

Miller ordered the payment to Yoon as the death of his family took away "the comfort, companionship, society and love a young child is capable of providing to a new parent and, then, in later life."

AP said that Lee's family was awarded compensation for being "extraordinary woman whose profound and loving influence greatly moulded, directly or indirectly, virtually every plaintiff in this case."

Court records showed that the fighter plane encountered problems while on a training mission on Dec 8 2008 but its crash on a residential area was attributed by Navy officials to errors committed by the pilot, who could have landed the plane safely in the nearby base.

In his testimony, the surviving pilot told the court that he watched in horror as the plane he ejected from destroyed homes below, knowing that people inside suffered horrible deaths.

In a statement following the favourable decision, Yoon thanked the court for its "thoughtful, reasoned and just," ruling.

"Our family is relieved this part of the process is over, but no sum of money will ever make up for the loss of our loved ones," Yoon was quoted by AP as saying.

Yoon acknowledged that the Marine pilot "did everything he could to prevent this tragedy," but hinted that unnecessary cost-cutting measures implemented by military officials may have contributed to the accident.

"If the cost of paying fair compensation as ordered by this court will be factored into the daily decisions by our military in its operations that affect both military and civilian safety other families may be saved," Yoon stressed.