The families of the victims of the Zodiac crash near Oakdale, California, have filed suit against the aircraft’s maker, Zenith Aircraft, alleging that the Zodiac’s design is defective. The Zodiac is the two-seat aircraft whose wings tend to break off in flight due to a design-induced aerodynamic phenomenon known as flutter. That appears
Is Lidle Suit against Cirrus Frivolous?
Cory Lidle’s wife and Tyler Stanger’s family are suing Cirrus Design, alleging that a problem with the plane’s flight controls caused Lidle and Stanger’s plane to crash into a Manhattan hi-rise.
Miles O’Brien, a former CNN correspondent, calls the lawsuit frivolous, because the NTSB concluded the cause was pilot error. According to O’Brien, "in our litigious society, the facts don’t matter for much."
O’Brien is missing the fact that the NTSB’s conclusion is marred by a built-in conflict of interest.Continue Reading Is Lidle Suit against Cirrus Frivolous?
British Air Passengers’ Baggage: Going, going, gone . . .
The Washington Times recently reported that British Airways passengers may proceed with their lawsuit for compensation for lost baggage. British Airways loses 23 bags per 1,000 passengers carried, a rate more than 60 percent higher than the industry’s average, according to the Air Transport Users Council.
The Warsaw Convention limits to $9.07 per pound what a
Continental (Colgan) Flight 3407: Law Firms Take Different Tacks
Right after the crash of Flight 3407 at Buffalo, investigators focused on the aircraft’s deicing system. The question, as explained by former CNN reporter and pilot Miles O’Brien, was whether ice had accumulated on the plane’s wings faster than the de-icing system could remove it, leading to an aerodynamic “stall,” or loss of lift.
But as the investigation progressed, it began to look as though, just before the pilot lost control of the aircraft, the nose of the plane pitched up — not down as usually happens when ice overwhelms an aircraft. That raised an almost unthinkable possibility: gross pilot error. When an aircraft getsContinue Reading Continental (Colgan) Flight 3407: Law Firms Take Different Tacks