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'06 Comair Crash - 1 pax fam receives 7.1m award!

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Flybywire44

Flies With The Hat On
Joined
Mar 31, 2006
Posts
991
The family of one of the 49 dead passengers on the 2006 Comair crash was awarded 7.1 million! If every passenger's family was awarded the same figure then Comair would have a 347 million dollar liability!

What is their cash on hand and how long till the remaining lawsuits get settled?

:erm:

Judge: $7.1M for family of Comair Ky. crash victim
In last lawsuit from Comair crash that killed 49, judge orders $7.1M for victim's family
By Brett Barrouquere, Associated Press
Thursday February 10, 2011

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A judge on Thursday ordered the family of a victim of the 2006 Comair crash to divide $7.1 million in damages in the last lawsuit from the Kentucky crash.

U.S. District Judge Karl Forester ordered the wife and two daughters of Bryan Keith Woodward to split the compensatory damages award, including $750,000 for Woodward's pain and suffering. The Louisiana man was among 49 people killed when the plane crashed. Dozens of other lawsuits from the crash have already been settled, the amounts confidential.

Flight 5191 crashed Aug. 27, 2006, into a field near Blue Grass Airport in Lexington after trying to take off from a runway too short for commercial jets. The National Transportation Safety Board found the pilots failed to notice clues they were on the wrong runway. Co-pilot James Polehinke survived.

Forester's decision comes a week after he prevented Woodward's family from pursuing punitive damages, saying Comair, an Erlanger, Ky.-based subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Inc., couldn't be punished under Kentucky law for what the judge described as "reprehensible conduct" of the pilots.

Comair spokeswoman Christine Wever said the airline has consistently reached fair settlements.

"Since the day of the accident, we have honored our commitment to treat the passenger families fairly," Wever said. "We hope this judgment provides some measure of comfort for the family."

A message left for an attorney for Woodward's family, David Rapoport of Chicago, was not immediately returned. It was unclear whether they would appeal Forester's ruling on punitive damages.

A jury in December 2009 awarded the compensatory damages to Woodward's family. The judge previously allowed the punitive damages claim to go forward, but several legal issues delayed the trial. Then last week, Forester called off the punitive damages portion of the case.

Forester's order awarded Woodward's wife, Jamie Hebert, $1.35 million for Woodward's loss of earning power and the $750,000 for pain and suffering.

One of Hebert's daughters, Lauren Madison Hebert, will get $2 million for loss of affection and companionship from her father through her 18th birthday. Forester awarded another daughter, Mattie-Kay Hebert, $3 million for loss of affection and companionship from her father through her 18th birthday.

The daughters' ages were not immediately available.

Because Hebert had multiple attorneys over the life of the lawsuit, Forester gave attorneys in the case until March 15 to submit paperwork detailing their expenses.

Jury selection in a massive case against Comair was called off in 2008 when financial settlements were reached between Comair and all but two families of the passengers who died. One of those settled a few weeks later, leaving only the Woodward case.

Woodward, 39, and his family lived near Lafayette, La., where he was an electrician who often worked on offshore oil rigs. He was on his way to Atlanta for a connecting flight when the plane crashed.
 
One word: Insurance.

And if you read the entire article that you posted (second to last paragraph), you would have read that this was the last lawsuit.
 
Yep, we're marketable now! Who want's to give it to us now! Staple us to the bottom of Go Jets! Yeah baby! Seriously, I'm tired of giving it up to Delta. I want to be someone else's B**ch!
 
What is their cash on hand and how long till the remaining lawsuits get settled?

:erm:


A little reading comprehension problem? From the article you posted:

"Jury selection in a massive case against Comair was called off in 2008 when financial settlements were reached between Comair and all but two families of the passengers who died. One of those settled a few weeks later, leaving only the Woodward case."


Edit: Never mind, saw CRJ's response.
 
It's cheaper to pay insurance premiums and attorneys than it is to provide employees with enough job security and pay that conversations and concerns about these matters don't play a role in impacting the safety of Delta's customers.

The conversation aboard 5191 has occurred, and is still occurring at every regional airline in the Delta network.

Fortunately, multiple factors that contributed to the accident in LEX haven't aligned in just the right manner and presented themselves to a different crew also distracted by where they're going to spend the night, how they're going to pay their rent/mortgage, how fatigued they are from ridiculous schedules, how they're going to pay back student loans, is their airline going to exist six months from now, etc....

yet.
 
A little reading comprehension problem? From the article you posted:

"Jury selection in a massive case against Comair was called off in 2008 when financial settlements were reached between Comair and all but two families of the passengers who died. One of those settled a few weeks later, leaving only the Woodward case."


Edit: Never mind, saw CRJ's response.

You're both quite correct.

I wonder what the settlements were and what their insurance premiums are now. Maybe the other families wish they had not settled?
 
"$2 million for loss of affection and companionship"
WTF????//////
 
It's cheaper to pay insurance premiums and attorneys than it is to provide employees with enough job security and pay that conversations and concerns about these matters don't play a role in impacting the safety of Delta's customers.

The conversation aboard 5191 has occurred, and is still occurring at every regional airline in the Delta network.

Fortunately, multiple factors that contributed to the accident in LEX haven't aligned in just the right manner and presented themselves to a different crew also distracted by where they're going to spend the night, how they're going to pay their rent/mortgage, how fatigued they are from ridiculous schedules, how they're going to pay back student loans, is their airline going to exist six months from now, etc....

yet.

Call me dense but I must have missed that part in the transcript.

CMR5191 CVR transcript
 
Call me dense but I must have missed that part in the transcript.

CMR5191 CVR transcript

I don't believe you're dense, but perhaps you aren't aware of some of the things that were going on at Comair at the time...and again today.

The accident, despite all the f'd up things going on that morning at LEX, was ultimately blamed solely on the crew for a sterile cockpit violation.

Here is a portion of that conversation that occurred during the taxi, from the transcript you linked to:

06:3:16.4
HOT-2 yeah, I know three guys at Kennedy. actually two guys uh....
@@ he went but he didn't get past the sim.
06:3:26.7
HOT-1 oh, really.
06:3:29.1
HOT-2 and then um, a First Officer from Cinci....
06:3:34.5
GND Eagle flight radar contact, radar contact. say altitude leaving.
06:3:35.1
HOT-2 got through the second part....
06:3:37.2
HOT-2 what do you do the uh, these tests.... and he didn't, and that's as
far as he got.
06:3:40.8
GND Eagle flight eight eighty two, climb and maintain one zero thousand,
ten thousand.
06:3:49.3
HOT-2 and then @@ he actually got offered the position.
06:3:54.5
HOT-1 did he take it or....
06:3:55.5
HOT-2 yeah.
06:3:56.1

They are discussing fellow Comair pilots who had left for other opportunities.

Simply reading the CVR does not give the full context of what was occurring at the time of the accident at the Comair Circus. Just a couple of weeks before this accident, management at Comair had started campaigning for yet another concessionary agreement, and threatened bankruptcy. Many pilots at the airline during this time (as is the case today) were concerned about their economic security and were looking for opportunities to remove themselves from the imminent bankruptcy.

The conversation above...blamed by the NTSB as the "cause" of the accident, occurred as a result of the crew discussing options for dealing with additional economic stress placed upon them by Comair/Delta management.

Any number of things could have prevented the accident in LEX. One of them is having crewmembers who are not distracted by economic pressures placed upon them by their employer. Pilots who are adequately compensated, with a reasonably secure future employment outlook, have no need to discuss other job opportunities.

I'm not condoning the sterile cockpit violation, though having operated in LEX during that time, I believe the sterile cockpit issue was a very minor factor in the accident. My point is the constant pressure to "do everything with nothing, and by the way you're paid too much" mentality at every regional airline is a safety hazard that was as much to blame for the accident that occurred at LEX as any other factor. It's a shame the NTSB didn't catch this.

Perhaps if they'd shone the light on this issue, Colgan 3407 wouldn't have occurred. It was a missed opportunity.

Pilots should not need to sleep in ops because they can't afford a hotel room.

Pilots should not have to share a bedroom with ten other people because they can't afford a hotel room.

Pilots should not have to eat pretzels from the galley because they have a student loan payment due.

Pilots should not have to live in the employee parking lot in Winnebago's because they can't afford to live in domicile.

Pilots should not be afraid to call in sick during a trip, or prior to begining one after commuting in the night before, because they can't afford a hotel room.

Pilots should not have to live at home with their parents who live 3000 miles from the pilot's domicile because the pilot can't afford to live on their own, in domicile.

Pilots should not have to work second jobs during their time off because they're concerned about their economic security.
 
Last edited:
This isn't anything new!?? I wouldn't wish this so-called "career" on anyone. Comair sucks, and that's directly a result of Delta Air Lines. As far as I'm concerned, the mainline partner is ultimately responsible; it's something that was only kinda figured out recently by the flying public after the Colgan wreck. You just can't pawn this off on two employees who by all accts. were just as concerned with their futures as every regional pilot is.
 

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