TL;DR:
After a tragic aviation incident, it is vital to protect your family’s legal rights. First, secure your loved one’s personal and estate documents, such as their will and birth certificate. Do not speak with representatives from the airline or their insurance company, as their primary goal is to limit their financial liability. It is critical that you do not sign any documents or accept any form of payment or settlement offer without legal advice. Preserve all communications and records related to the flight. Most importantly, contact an attorney with specific experience in aviation law immediately to guide you through the process.
Commercial air travel remains one of the safest forms of transportation, with major accidents being statistically rare. However, when a crash does occur, the consequences are devastating for the families involved. The investigation that follows is a complex, multi-agency effort, often led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States. The NTSBโs primary function is to determine the probable cause of the accident to prevent future incidents, not to assign legal blame. Their findings, however, become a cornerstone of any subsequent legal action.
The legal framework for aviation accidents is intricate, involving federal regulations, state wrongful death statutes, and international treaties. For international flights, the Montreal Convention often governs liability, setting specific rules for where a lawsuit can be filed and placing strict liability on the air carrier. For domestic flights, a combination of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and state tort laws will apply. Understanding these intersecting rules is fundamental to ensuring your family receives fair treatment and that all responsible parties are held accountable. Taking the correct legal steps from the very beginning is essential to protect your rights during this difficult time.
Immediate Actions to Protect Your Rights
In the hours and days following an aviation incident, you will be dealing with profound grief. At the same time, representatives from the airline and its insurance company will likely try to make contact. It is crucial to understand that their interests are not aligned with yours. Their objective is to minimize the company’s financial exposure. Taking a few deliberate steps right away can safeguard your familyโs legal standing for the future.
Securing Essential Documents
Your first priority should be to locate and secure important personal and financial documents belonging to your loved one. This is not just for administrative purposes; these papers are vital for establishing the legal and financial impact of your loss.
- Estate Documents: Locate the will, any trust documents, and life insurance policies. These will be necessary for managing the estate.
- Personal Identification: Gather birth certificates, marriage certificates, and social security information.
- Financial Records: Collect recent tax returns, pay stubs, and information on retirement accounts or pensions. These documents are essential for calculating the economic damages, such as lost future income.
Having these materials organized will provide your legal team with the foundation they need to build a comprehensive wrongful death claim on your behalf.
Managing Communications
You can expect to be contacted by the airline. They may offer condolences and assistance, but you must be cautious. Any conversation can be used by their legal team later. It is best to decline to speak with them or their insurers until you have legal representation. You can simply state, “Thank you for your call. My attorney will be in contact with you.” Do not provide any details about your loved one or your family. You should also be wary of speaking to the media. While their interest is understandable, public statements can sometimes complicate a future legal case.
Resisting Early Settlement Offers
Airlines and their insurers often make quick settlement offers. They might offer to cover funeral costs or provide an immediate cash payment. These offers may seem helpful, but they almost always come with a requirement to sign a release form. This document legally waives your right to pursue any further claims. These initial offers are typically a small fraction of what a family is rightfully entitled to recover. Accepting one can prevent you from obtaining compensation for long-term financial losses and non-economic damages. Never sign any document or accept a check from an airline without having it reviewed by an experienced aviation attorney.
Interacting with Official Investigations and Agencies
Following a plane crash in the U.S. or involving a U.S. carrier, several government agencies will launch investigations. Understanding their roles helps you know what to expect and how their work will influence your legal case. The process is methodical and can take a year or longer to complete.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
The NTSB is the lead investigative body for all U.S. civil aviation accidents. A “Go Team” of specialists is dispatched to the crash site to collect evidence, including the flight data recorder (“black box”) and cockpit voice recorder. The NTSB’s mission is to find the probable cause of the crash and issue safety recommendations.
It is important to know that the NTSB’s final report cannot be used in court to assign blame or liability. However, the factual findings within the report, such as maintenance records, pilot actions, and air traffic control communications, provide the raw material that your legal teamโs experts will analyze to build your case. The NTSB also manages family assistance under the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act, coordinating with airlines to provide information and support to victims’ families.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
The FAA is the regulatory body for aviation in the United States. While the NTSB investigates the crash, the FAA often participates by providing technical expertise related to aircraft certification, air traffic control procedures, and airline operational standards. The FAA’s records are critical evidence. Your attorney will seek to obtain documents related to the aircraft’s maintenance history, the airline’s safety compliance, and the pilots’ training and certification records, all of which are maintained by or filed with the FAA. Any evidence of regulatory violations can be powerful in proving negligence.
Your Role as a Family Member
As a family member, you have a right to be kept informed. The NTSB will assign a representative to communicate with families, providing updates on the investigation’s progress and the recovery and identification process. While this is a valuable resource, remember that their role is informational, not legal. Your aviation attorney will be your primary advocate, interfacing with these agencies on your behalf and working to gain access to key evidence as it becomes available.
Understanding Liability in an Aviation Accident
Determining who is legally responsible for an airplane crash is rarely simple. It is often a chain of events involving multiple parties whose actions or inactions contributed to the tragedy. A thorough legal investigation, separate from the NTSB’s work, is required to identify all potentially liable parties. This ensures that your claim for damages is directed at every entity that shares responsibility.
Airline and Operator Liability
Airlines are classified as “common carriers,” which means they are held to the highest standard of care for passenger safety. This is a very strict legal standard. Liability can arise from various failures, including:
- Pilot Error: This is a factor in a significant percentage of crashes and can include mistakes in judgment, failure to follow procedures, or inadequate response to an emergency.
- Improper Maintenance: Negligence in aircraft inspection, repair, or maintenance can lead to catastrophic mechanical failures.
- Inadequate Training: Failure to properly train pilots, flight attendants, or maintenance crews.
- Operational Negligence: Poor decisions made by the airline’s management, such as dispatching a flight in unsafe weather conditions.
Manufacturer and Component Part Maker Liability
Sometimes, the fault lies not with the airline but with the aircraft itself. A product liability claim can be brought against the manufacturer of the airplane (e.g., Boeing, Airbus) or the makers of its individual components (e.g., engines, avionics, landing gear). These claims typically fall into three categories:
- Design Defect: The aircraft or a part was designed in a way that made it inherently unsafe.
- Manufacturing Flaw: An error occurred during the assembly or production of the aircraft or a component, making it different from its intended design.
- Failure to Warn: The manufacturer failed to provide adequate instructions or warnings about a known danger associated with the aircraft’s operation.
Government and Third-Party Liability
In some cases, other entities may share responsibility. For example, the FAA employs air traffic controllers who manage the nation’s airspace. If an error by an air traffic controller contributed to the crash, a claim could be brought against the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Other third parties could include independent maintenance contractors who performed faulty repairs or even airport authorities if unsafe runway conditions were a factor.
The Legal Process for an Airplane Crash Claim
Filing a lawsuit after an aviation disaster is a complex process that demands specialized legal knowledge. The journey involves several distinct phases, each with its own set of procedures and strategic considerations. An experienced legal team will manage this process, allowing your family to focus on healing.
Filing the Lawsuit and Jurisdiction
One of the first critical decisions is determining the proper jurisdiction, which means deciding where to file the lawsuit. This choice can significantly impact the laws that apply to your case and the potential value of your claim. For a domestic crash, the suit might be filed in the state where the crash occurred, where the airline is headquartered, or where your loved one resided.
For international flights, the Montreal Convention strictly dictates that a lawsuit can only be filed in one of a few specific places, such as the airline’s principal place of business or the passenger’s final destination. Choosing the wrong jurisdiction can lead to the case being dismissed.
The Discovery Phase
Once the lawsuit is filed, the “discovery” phase begins. This is the longest and often most expensive part of the litigation. During discovery, both sides exchange information and evidence. Your legal team will:
- Request Documents: Obtain thousands of pages of records from the airline, manufacturers, and the FAA, including maintenance logs, training manuals, and internal communications.
- Take Depositions: Conduct sworn interviews with pilots, mechanics, company executives, and other key witnesses.
- Hire Experts: Retain world-class experts in fields like aviation engineering, metallurgy, pilot procedures, and economics to analyze the evidence and provide testimony.
This phase is where the case is built, piece by piece, to prove what caused the crash and who was responsible.
Settlement Negotiations vs. Trial
The vast majority of aviation lawsuits are resolved through a settlement before reaching a trial. A settlement is a negotiated agreement where the defendants agree to pay a sum of money in exchange for the case being dropped. Strong preparation during the discovery phase is what drives a favorable settlement. By building an undeniable case based on facts and expert analysis, your attorneys can pressure the defendants to offer fair compensation. If a fair settlement cannot be reached, your legal team must be fully prepared to present your case to a judge and jury at trial.
Calculating and Proving Damages
In a wrongful death lawsuit, “damages” refers to the compensation the surviving family members are entitled to receive. The goal is to provide financial stability and acknowledge the full extent of the family’s loss. Calculating these damages is a detailed process that requires input from various financial and vocational experts.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the tangible financial losses resulting from your loved one’s death. They are calculated based on concrete evidence and expert projections. These damages typically include:
- Loss of Future Income: The amount of money the deceased would have been expected to earn over the remainder of their career.
- Loss of Benefits: The value of lost benefits like health insurance, retirement contributions (401k, pension), and stock options.
- Loss of Services: The monetary value of the services the person provided, such as childcare, home maintenance, and financial management.
- Funeral and Burial Expenses: The direct costs associated with the final arrangements.
Economists and vocational experts are retained to analyze financial records and create a comprehensive report detailing these losses for the court.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate for the profound, intangible human losses that a family suffers. While no amount of money can replace a loved one, these damages are a legal acknowledgment of the immense personal cost. They include:
- Loss of Companionship, Society, and Comfort: Compensation for the loss of the relationship itself.
- Sorrow, Grief, and Mental Anguish: Acknowledgment of the emotional suffering endured by the surviving family members.
- Loss of Guidance and Nurturing: This is particularly relevant for surviving children who have lost a parent.
The laws governing non-economic damages vary significantly from state to state, which is another reason why choosing the right jurisdiction is so important.
Punitive Damages
In rare cases where the defendant’s conduct was found to be particularly reckless or malicious, a court may award punitive damages. These are not meant to compensate the family but to punish the defendant and deter similar behavior in the future. Proving the level of gross negligence required for punitive damages is very difficult and is not possible in every case.
Selecting the Right Aviation Accident Attorney
Choosing legal representation is the single most important decision you will make in this process. Aviation law is a highly specialized field. A general personal injury lawyer, no matter how skilled, will not have the specific knowledge, resources, or experience required to successfully handle a complex plane crash case.
Key Qualifications to Look For
When evaluating a law firm, look for a specific set of qualifications that demonstrate their expertise in this unique area of law.
- Specific Aviation Experience: The firm should have a proven track record of handling major aviation disaster cases, not just general personal injury claims.
- Knowledge of NTSB Procedures: Your attorney must understand how to work with the NTSB and how to conduct a parallel investigation to build your legal case.
- Financial Resources: Aviation litigation is incredibly expensive. The firm must have the financial strength to fund the case for years, including paying for top-tier experts from around the world.
- A Team of Experts: An established aviation law firm will have a network of leading experts in accident reconstruction, engineering, and human factors ready to be deployed.
Questions to Ask During a Consultation
When you meet with a potential attorney, do not hesitate to ask direct questions about their experience and approach.
- “How many aviation wrongful death cases has your firm handled as lead counsel?”
- “Have you litigated cases against this specific airline or manufacturer before?”
- “Who are the aviation experts you typically retain for cases like this?”
- “Can you explain your firm’s financial resources for funding this type of litigation?”
- “Who at the firm will be my primary point of contact?”
Understanding Fee Structures
Virtually all aviation law firms work on a contingency fee basis. This means you do not pay any attorney’s fees or case expenses upfront. The law firm advances all the costs of the litigation. The firm is only paid if they successfully recover compensation for you, at which point they receive a pre-agreed percentage of the settlement or verdict. This structure ensures that all families, regardless of their financial situation, have access to the best possible legal representation.
Conclusion
The legal journey after losing a loved one in an airplane crash is demanding and filled with complexities that require specialized knowledge. The first steps you take are critical: secure important documents, refuse to speak with airline representatives, and do not sign anything without legal counsel. Understanding the roles of investigative agencies like the NTSB and the different avenues of liability involving airlines, manufacturers, and other parties is essential for holding all responsible entities accountable. The legal process, from filing the lawsuit through the discovery phase and calculating damages, requires a methodical and expert-led approach.
Your most important action is to secure representation from a law firm that focuses specifically on aviation law. An experienced team will not only protect your legal rights but also shoulder the burden of the investigation and litigation, allowing your family to focus on healing. They have the resources, expert connections, and deep industry knowledge to ensure your case is built on a foundation of facts and to fight for the full compensation your family deserves. Contacting a qualified aviation attorney for a confidential consultation is the definitive step toward securing justice and financial stability for your family’s future. Contact us for free consultation today.