Carnahan family gets 4 million...

[Vavso]

Heard on news Carnahan family won 4 million verdict in plane crash which killed him and son said a "failed part" was resposnible for crash . Unknown what the failed part was but suspect attitude gyro possibly .
Another blow to GA !

 

[shroomwell]

Another win for the trial lawyers.

Don't quote me on it, but if I remember correctly they said that the pilot was aware of the inop instrument before they took-off.

Whatever happened to personal resposibility?

 

[Flying Illini]

I'd be curious to hear the whole story. Who are they getting the settlement from?

 

[labbats]

Personal responsibility?? How un-American!

 

[340drvr]

Maybe all us pilots could get together and file a class-action suit against the Carnahans for increasing our insurance costs, giving us headaches, etc.

 

[rfeathe1]

Today's edition of the St. Petersburg times says a pair of vacuum pumps failed. The $4,000,000 award was against Parker Hannifin, the manufacturer of the pumps. I don't remember what kind of airplane it was.

 

[supsup]

I think it was

I think it was a cessna 340? I was in st. louis the night that he crashed, it was pretty crappy out.

 

[CorpAv8r]

Personal responsibility?? How un-American!

How true. One of the worst cases I heard of (I'm sorry I don't remember all the details) was a pilot who ran out of gas, crashed and killed himself. The family sued the aircraft manufacturer and won because it did not say anywhere in the flight manual that the airplane wouldn't fly without fuel.

340drvr has a good idea. Lawyers and stupid people are increasing our costs and creating needless paper work. Maybe the tree-huggers would join in on the class-action suit because the added paper work is depleting our forests.

 

[BobSmith_av8r]

The story I read said that Parker Hannifin were sued for the vacuum pumps failing but that an FAA report said that the pumps were "probably" operating at the time of impact. This report supposedly said that it was probably the failure of the Attitude Indicator that caused the crash. They made it sound like nobody really could agree on what had happened.


This article also said that PH won't have to fork over the entire $4m, only the balance of that after the Carnahans receive their other payouts from all the other people they've sued so it will be more like $2.7m or so.

 

[Timebuilder]

Question:

Who are they getting the settlement from?

Answer: everyone else who flys, in the form of higher costs. Think PH charges a lot for a pump now? Wait until they post a new price.

The Trial Lawyers are at the very heart of this problem. They are against tort reform because it will mean less money in THEIR pocket. Need I mention that these trial lawyers are the numero uno supporters of the democrats?

Government as nanny/no personal responsibility. Don't these ideas go hand in hand?

 

[shroomwell]

I read an article about the guy who ran out of gas and his family sued. I believe it was a C210 he was flying. He should have been marked off as Darwin's Theory, and that should have been the end of it.

Also the lawyer (aka skumbag) got a jury to believe that two independant vacuum pumps failed in flight. C'mon what is wrong with the system.

 

[ShawnC]

This better get appealed.

What ever happened to partial panel? I thought it was all the rage (at least based on getting it pounded into my head by the CFI).

 

[Brett Hull]

The funny part is Jean Carnahan used to get in a Baron, that uses the same vacuum pumps, with me on a regular basis. I guess when you're trying to win an election, you forget all that stuff. Maybe I should have lawyered up, or at least called Parker-Hannifin's legal dept.

 

[AA717driver]

If you like this verdict, you love President John Edwards.TC

 

[azpilot]

Here's a few more stupid lawsuits.

http://www.reyeslaw.com/library_news_dmn587.asp
The family of a woman and son killed in a November airplane crash in Queens, N.Y., have filed suit Thursday alleging that American Airlines, Inc. improperly trained its pilots on use of airplane rudders.

http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/03/may2.html#0514a
May 14 -- NTSB blames pilot error, but airport told to pay $10 million. "A Cook County jury awarded $10.45 million to the family of a pilot killed in 1996 when the executive jet he was at the controls of slid off the runway and burned at Palwaukee Municipal Airport. The pilot, Martin Koppie, 53, had been accused in earlier lawsuits of causing the crash that killed three other people." The new verdict, on the other hand, throws $9.9 million worth of blame onto the municipalities of Wheeling and Prospect Heights, which own and operate the airport, for allegedly locating a drainage ditch too close to the runway. "In a 1998 report, the National Transportation Safety Board faulted Koppie for not aborting the takeoff and co-pilot Whitener for not taking 'sufficient remedial action.' In 2001, a Cook County jury awarded $18.9 million to Whitener's family, who had argued that Koppie caused the crash and Chicago-based Aon Corp. was responsible as his employer." (Michael Higgins, "$10 million award in '96 plane crash", Chicago Tribune, May 7).

http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/01/oct1.html#1010c
October 10-11 -- "Man Thought He Was Dead, Sues Airline". Scott Bender of Philadelphia was snoozing when the U.S. Airways flight from North Carolina landed at the Birmingham, Alabama airport and the crew left him there in the little plane until he woke up. It was really dark, says his lawyer, and Bender "didn't know if he was alive or dead" -- it turned out the former. Now he wants money for the fright and other harms. (Chanda Temple, Birmingham News, Oct. 4).

http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/01/aug3.html#0824a
August 24-26 -- "Delta passenger wins $1.25 mln for landing trauma". Outwardly uninjured after a terrifying emergency landing en route to Cincinnati in 1996, Kathy Weaver has nonetheless won $1.25 million from Delta Air Lines after her lawyer persuaded a Montana jury that the episode had caused her to suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome and an aggravation of her pre-existing depression. The judge ruled that "her terror during the landing led to physical changes within the brain that could be defined as injury". (Reuters/Yahoo, Aug. 23; PPrune thread) (more on white-knuckle lotto: Oct. 19, 2000, Oct. 8, 1999).

Just what we need:
http://planecrashlawyersnetwork.com/

 

[dogg]

I think that is not the trial lawyers but the idiot juries that are to blame...period.

 

[bart]

No the blame lies in the law as interpreted by activist judges. The system is fed by democratic appointed judges, elected through the generous funding of ATLA and the employees of members. Next to unions, they are the democrats largest contributors.

Zell Miller (D-GA) is sponsoring legislation in the next session to put a stop to this. I am sure ATLA will find a way to kill it, but hopefully a vote will show exactly who is on what side of this issue.

 

[Timebuilder]

I think that is not the trial lawyers but the idiot juries that are to blame...period.

In order for the jury to make the award, the case has to come to trial carrying a blank check.

Instead of the deceased being the "victims" of the so-called defective product (not true in this case since all instrument pilots are schooled in the weakness of an all-vacuum system) we need to assign a large percentage of the responsibility to the person who decides to use the product under the given circumstances. That's what the Miller legislation will try and do.

Some attorneys may have to give up their month in Paris or their third home, but let's bring reason back into the system and be fair.

 

[dpilot_citation]

IFR Current

I agree with all of the above. I live in MO., and have talked to several people who called him autopilot IFR current. You can never train too much.

Training!

Training!

Training!

 

[100LL... Again!]

Whatever happened to partial panel training?

Personal responsibility is dead.

If the guy lost all his gyros ,the I feel very sorry forr him, but it is still not something to sue over.

If he still hd at least one gyro, then I guess it's his lack of proficiency. Sorry to say unpleasant things about someone who crashed, but a little proficiency goes a long way.