Fifth lawsuit filed in deadly American commuter crash
ST. LOUIS - Pilots of a commuter plane that crashed in October in northeast Missouri, killing 13 people, had been on duty longer than the air carrier's guidelines, according to a fifth lawsuit over the disaster.
The latest lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court here on behalf of Michigan physician Judith Diffenderfer, names American Airlines and Corporate Airlines Inc., owner of the Jetstream 32
that crashed Oct. 19 on approach to the airport in Kirksville, about 200 miles northwest of St. Louis.
The latest lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court here on behalf of Michigan physician Judith Diffenderfer, names American Airlines and Corporate Airlines Inc., owner of the Jetstream 32
that crashed Oct. 19 on approach to the airport in Kirksville, about 200 miles northwest of St. Louis.
The 19-seat, twin-engine turboprop clipped treetops before crashing about 7:30 p.m. on private property in a wooded area between two fields. Two passengers survived.
The flight was the sixth of the day for pilots Kim Sasse, 48, of Ramsey, N.J., and Jonathan Palmer, 29, of Cincinnati, who died in the crash. According to the Diffenderfer lawsuit, the two pilots had been on duty for 14 hours and 41 minutes at the time of the crash, below current the Federal Aviation Administration's standard of 16 hours but beyond American Airlines' 14-hour limitation.
Extended duty times, which can lead to fatigue, may have been due to a pilot shortage that Smyrna, Tenn.-based Corporate Airlines reportedly experienced at the time, the lawsuit alleges.
A lawsuit filed last month in St. Louis Circuit Court by a daughter of Flight 5966 passenger Rada Bronson, 60, of Los Angeles, blames the crash that killed her mother on carelessness by American, Corporate Airlines and Trans States airlines.
The Bronson lawsuit, along with many of the others, alleges that the plane in question was not air-worthy, that the crew was not properly trained and that the airlines failed to stop the flight from leaving St. Louis in dangerous weather, among other things.
That petition also alleges that the airlines led Flight 5966's passengers into mistakenly thinking they were flying on American Airlines equipment and with pilots trained by American Airlines.
Survivors of two other killed passengers - Dallas-area photographer Paul Talley and Utah physician Clark Ator - separately filed suit against American and Corporate airlines in December in Texas, among other things accusing the carriers of negligently operating the airplane without an enhanced device to warn pilots how close the ground was.
The FAA had ordered all commercial airplanes with at least six seats to have the enhanced system by March 29. In the Kirksville tragedy, "we believe it was foolishness to operate a plane this size without having this equipment," Windle Turley, the Dallas attorney representing the Talley and Ator families in the lawsuits, said.
The Texas lawsuits also cite the length of the flight crew's duty and the attempt to land the plane in "marginal conditions" as possible contributors to the crash.
A fifth lawsuit was filed last week in federal court here on behalf of a provider of workers' compensation coverage to employees of A.T. Still University, which has a Kirksville campus and had four employees on the flight. Two of those passengers died.
Everest National Insurance Co. of New Jersey alleges that Corporate Airlines should reimburse Everest for workers' compensation and other benefit payments made to the two survivors and the dependents of the two killed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported.
The cause of the crash remains under federal investigation.
Messages were left Tuesday with Corporate Airlines and Trans State Airlines, which has said its only involvement in the ill-fated flight was boarding passengers in St. Louis. American Airlines has said the company does not discuss pending litigation
ST. LOUIS - Pilots of a commuter plane that crashed in October in northeast Missouri, killing 13 people, had been on duty longer than the air carrier's guidelines, according to a fifth lawsuit over the disaster.
The latest lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court here on behalf of Michigan physician Judith Diffenderfer, names American Airlines and Corporate Airlines Inc., owner of the Jetstream 32
The latest lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court here on behalf of Michigan physician Judith Diffenderfer, names American Airlines and Corporate Airlines Inc., owner of the Jetstream 32
The 19-seat, twin-engine turboprop clipped treetops before crashing about 7:30 p.m. on private property in a wooded area between two fields. Two passengers survived.
The flight was the sixth of the day for pilots Kim Sasse, 48, of Ramsey, N.J., and Jonathan Palmer, 29, of Cincinnati, who died in the crash. According to the Diffenderfer lawsuit, the two pilots had been on duty for 14 hours and 41 minutes at the time of the crash, below current the Federal Aviation Administration's standard of 16 hours but beyond American Airlines' 14-hour limitation.
Extended duty times, which can lead to fatigue, may have been due to a pilot shortage that Smyrna, Tenn.-based Corporate Airlines reportedly experienced at the time, the lawsuit alleges.
A lawsuit filed last month in St. Louis Circuit Court by a daughter of Flight 5966 passenger Rada Bronson, 60, of Los Angeles, blames the crash that killed her mother on carelessness by American, Corporate Airlines and Trans States airlines.
The Bronson lawsuit, along with many of the others, alleges that the plane in question was not air-worthy, that the crew was not properly trained and that the airlines failed to stop the flight from leaving St. Louis in dangerous weather, among other things.
That petition also alleges that the airlines led Flight 5966's passengers into mistakenly thinking they were flying on American Airlines equipment and with pilots trained by American Airlines.
Survivors of two other killed passengers - Dallas-area photographer Paul Talley and Utah physician Clark Ator - separately filed suit against American and Corporate airlines in December in Texas, among other things accusing the carriers of negligently operating the airplane without an enhanced device to warn pilots how close the ground was.
The FAA had ordered all commercial airplanes with at least six seats to have the enhanced system by March 29. In the Kirksville tragedy, "we believe it was foolishness to operate a plane this size without having this equipment," Windle Turley, the Dallas attorney representing the Talley and Ator families in the lawsuits, said.
The Texas lawsuits also cite the length of the flight crew's duty and the attempt to land the plane in "marginal conditions" as possible contributors to the crash.
A fifth lawsuit was filed last week in federal court here on behalf of a provider of workers' compensation coverage to employees of A.T. Still University, which has a Kirksville campus and had four employees on the flight. Two of those passengers died.
Everest National Insurance Co. of New Jersey alleges that Corporate Airlines should reimburse Everest for workers' compensation and other benefit payments made to the two survivors and the dependents of the two killed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported.
The cause of the crash remains under federal investigation.
Messages were left Tuesday with Corporate Airlines and Trans State Airlines, which has said its only involvement in the ill-fated flight was boarding passengers in St. Louis. American Airlines has said the company does not discuss pending litigation
