Plane Crash Lawyer Aviation Attorney

• Approximately 80 percent of all plane crashes occur shortly before or after takeoff or landing due to human error or mechanical failures.
• According to an aviation accident survey of nearly 2,200 plane crashes from 1950 to 2004, the number one cause of aviation accidents is pilot error, which results in 45 percent of accidents. Undetermined causes: 33 percent. Mechanical failure: 13 percent.
• In 2005, there were a total of 1,764 aviation accidents in the United States that resulted in 600 fatalities. Low-level maneuvering of an aircraft was the leading cause of fatal aviation accidents from 1998 to 2004.
• In 2004, more than 70 percent of all plane crashes that ended in serious injury or fatality occurred during a personal flight. General aviation accidents occur more frequently than airline or business aviation accidents.
• The most recent statistics on midair collisions has shown a steady decline. In 2004, there were 10 midair accidents resulting in 10 fatalities compared to 11 collisions in 2003 with 23 deaths.

Some of the most common causes of aviation accidents include:

• pilot error,
• negligence by a flight service employee or air traffic controller,
• faulty equipment or mechanical failure,
• weather,
• and sabotage.
• Violations of Federal Aviation Administration safety regulations and aviation law are also a frequent cause of aviation accidents.

NYC Plane Crash Survivor Suing Pilot’s Estate

Nov 29, 2006 -

A woman who was injured when a small airplane carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into her apartment is suing the Lidle’s estate and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Llana Benhuri, 50, was doing paperwork standing mere feet from the window in her 30th floor apartment when, “Everything from outside, the windows and the walls and everything with a big explosion came right into me … I touched myself just to make sure I was alive. I then hit my body and all of my skin and flesh came to my hand,” she said.

Eveline Reategue, Benhuri’s housekeeper, saw the plane coming through a window and rushed to tell Benhuri about it, but she was too late. As she ran, the plane crashed through the wall and erupted into a fireball.

“The explosion threw me up in the air,” Benhuri said. “I was screaming. I could not stop screaming. I did not know what it was.”

The Injuries

Benhuri was severely burned below her waist, but she and Reategue made it down the stairs to safety.

She was hospitalized that day. She underwent surgery and had many skin grafts. She was released from the hospital a month after the crash.

“She’s still in pain,” her attorney Bob Sullivan said. He added that they would be filing a lawsuit.

Who’s responsible?

“There is negligence on behalf of the FAA for letting him do it and let’s face it, there is negligence on whoever was piloting that plane,” Sullivan said.

The plane was registered to Lidle, and he is suspected to have been at the Cirrus SR20’s controls, but officials have not yet confirmed this.

Also onboard the plane was Lidle’s flight instructor. Both men died.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigators have attributed the crash to the pilot’s inability to turn sharply in a light wind.

Of the 23 people injured in the crash, Benhuri was the only one with injuries serious enough to require hospitalization. The others were treated and released.

Injured in a plane crash? Please contact us today to speak to a qualified and experienced plane crash attorney about your legal rights and options.

 

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