When people think of an Aviation Accident their minds usually turn to images of an airliner strewn over a wide area with bunches of police, fire, and other officials crawling all over the place. These scenes are usually being orchestrated by teams from the NTSB(National Transportation and Safety Board).
These ‘Go Teams’ are made up of some of the finest minds that the government can assemble and charged with the unenviable task of sifting through the wreckage that was once human lives and trying to reconstruct what caused the incident. Their purpose isn’t just to find fault, but to try and prevent future tragedies.
Their skills and resources are formidable and one of the main reasons that when an attorneybecomes involved in a case involving a commercial airliner their role will be pretty much be restricted to monitoring the investigation, building a case based on the evidence found by analyzing the NTSB findings and assembling a winning team of expert witnesses to support that case.
Charter Flights
With smaller commercial aircraft like those owned and operated by charter flight services, things are a little different. While still regulated by the NTSB, charter companies are much less strenuously monitored and incidence investigations involving them are often very limited in scope.
In these cases, a good aviation attorney will assemble their own team of experts and conduct a parallel investigation to that performed by the government. This isn’t to disparage the official investigators, it is simply acknowledging that the official investigation and the one performed by your lawyer’s team, will have different priorities. The government will be looking almost exclusively for the cause of the crash, while your team is more concerned with who has liability for the injuries and wrongful deaths associated with it. These can be very different concerns.
Corporate and Private Planes
By far the most common airplane crashes involve corporate and private planes. And, truth be told, many experts believe that traveling in a general aviation type aircraft, is more dangerous than driving a car.
Incidents involving these types fall almost completely outside the purview of the NTSB and are primarily investigated by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). In these cases, an attorney with aviation experience will almost certainly need to form a team to conduct a supplemental investigation to help assign liability for the crash in any ensuing case.
Non-Crash Aviation Accidents
All of the above are, of course, extreme incidents. They are, by no means, the most common types of cases involving aircraft. Slips, falls, personal attacks and all manner of other incidents that can happen, anywhere in the world, can also happen in an aircraft and are actually more likely to, due to the close confines in most aircraft cabins and the stress that many feel while flying.
Plane Crashes almost always involve major property damage, serious injuries and all too often wrongful death issues. The liability issues involved can cross the lines from airport personnel, airline personnel, the companies or government bodies they represent, private individuals and at times can involve multiple judiciary jurisdictions.
Even less severe personal injury incidents can become very complicated when dealing with airline personnel and the companies responsibility for ensuring your safety. In any case, these are not cases to be taken lightly.
They require an attorney with experience in dealing with a particular set of rules and regulations. One that has access and to experts in highly technical fields as well as, the knowledge to understand their findings and the drive and desire to take on the mutable government agencies and insurance carriers that can become involved I a case.
If you live in the Melbourne, Florida area and have been involved in any type of incident involving aircraft, contact Brad Sinclair of Sinclair Law, today. Sinclair Law, they go the extra mile for you.