West Palm Beach Airplane Accident Lawyer
Airplane and aviation crashes are some of the most dangerous transportation accidents, often resulting in serious injuries and fatalities. They can cause thousands or even millions of dollars of damaged property. Whether you’ve been in an accident involving an airplane or helicopter, whether it was a civilian, personal, or military aircraft, or whether it was a commercial or personal pilot, you may be able to collect damages to help pay for your injuries. Don’t hesitate to call one of our West Palm Beach airplane accident lawyers today to begin discussing your legal options.
Top 10 Causes of Aviation Accidents
The most common causes of aircraft accidents are pilot error, poor maintenance of the aircraft, or defective parts. Many times all three factors are involved. Specifically, common causes of aviation crashes include:
- Flying in dangerous weather;
- Takeoff and landing problems;
- Air traffic control errors;
- Failing to complete the pre-flight checks and inspections;
- Flying too low;
- Poor condition of the pilot, including stress, fatigue, alcohol, drug, or medication use, or illness;
- Running out of fuel;
- Misuse of technology; and
- Mechanical difficulties.
Depending on how the crash occurred, there may be several different parties at fault and held responsible. These people could include:
- Pilots
- Commercial airlines
- Air traffic controllers
- Aircraft designers
- Aircraft manufacturers
- Aircraft mechanics
- Ground crew
- Fixed base operators
A West Palm Beach airplane accident lawyer with experience in aviation accidents can help you determine the cause of the crash that you were injured in and the liable parties involved.
Pilot Error
Traveling by commercial airline is one of the safest forms of transportation. Accidents are rare, especially compared to other methods of travel, such as cars. In the last few decades, worldwide, there are typically fewer than 1,000 fatalities among commercial airline occupants. Compare this with motor vehicle accidents at over 30,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, every year. For automobiles, there are 1.3 fatalities per hundred million miles driven. Compare this to just three fatalities per 10 billion passenger miles flown in commercial aircraft and you can see that flying is much safer than driving.
With that said, personal flights are exponentially more hazardous than commercial flights. While commercial pilots have logged many hours of training, are incredibly experienced, and fly up to 1,000 hours a year, recreational pilots may fly only infrequently. They often don’t get regular practice and the skills they once learned begin to fade over the years.
It is not uncommon that the pilots of small planes crashes are family members or friends of the victims that were injured or died in the crash. If this is the case, it should not stop you from filing a personal injury claim. Generally, personal injury claims seek damages from the party’s insurance company, not the individual themselves.
But, if the negligent party was a commercial pilot, you may be able to make a claim against the pilot’s employer. As an employer, the airline company has a responsibility to their customers to take care in hiring, training, and proper supervision of all their pilots. If negligence can be proven in this regard, they can be held liable.
Licensing and records of licenses and certifications are kept by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA also enforces regular physical examinations to ensure pilots don’t have any health issues that would render them unfit to fly. Contact our West Palm Beach aviation accident lawyers.
Mechanical Difficulties
Aircraft accidents are frequently caused by mechanical issues. Even if they are manufactured according to design and flown by an expert with proper care, the original design could be faulty, resulting in catastrophe. Likewise, design could be flawless but if assembled poorly or produced with defects, the result can be the same.
If you or a loved one have been injured in a plane or other aircraft crash, you could be eligible to collect damages in a products liability claim, either against the designer or the manufacturer of the parts and equipment.
Maintenance Issues
Poor maintenance is another cause of aircraft accidents negligence. Personal owners of aircraft may not perform the necessary maintenance or inspections, or plane mechanics may not perform their duties aptly. Pilots are another party that must perform responsibilities before every flight to inspect their aircraft and ensure a safe flight. Failing to take these precautions could lead to a negligence claim.
Commercial and charter companies can also be held liable for maintenance issues. These companies must take responsibility in ensuring all of their staff, including mechanics and pilots, are carrying out their jobs safely and correctly. If airline supervision fails to catch a negligent maintenance crew, the airline company can be held negligent.
Investigation
A successful litigation team will carry out an extensive investigation to determine the cause and fault of your aircraft accident. Large aircraft are equipped with black boxes that record everything in the minutes leading up to the crash. This data is vital in determining what went wrong. Crashes that involve small aircraft without black boxes are oftentimes much harder to understand. Investigators and experts spend countless hours pouring over the data available to them. All aviation investigations take a lot of time resources. Our West Palm Beach aviation accident legal team has the needed experience in difficult aircraft accident crashes.
Damages
If a loved one perished in an aircraft accident or you or a loved one was injured, there are various paths to compensation. You or your loved one may be able to receive compensation for your medical bills both past and future, property damage, or lost wages. You may also be eligible for intangible loss damages such as disfigurement, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment in life.
If the accident resulted in death, the victim’s family may be eligible to receive compensation for companionship, consortium, loss of society, and funeral expense.
Contact our Experienced West Palm Beach Airplane Accident Lawyers Today
In the event of an injury or tragic loss of a loved one due to an aviation accident in West Palm Beach, you and your family deserve to speak with an experienced lawyer. We at the Pendas Law Firm are here to discuss your legal options. There’s no reason to wait because we do not charge any fees at the beginning. Give our West Palm Beach airplane and aviation accident lawyers a call today.
