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Families of the victims in Wednesday’s catastrophic airline collision are in the early stages of filing claims against the government, and their case could receive a boost from high profile comments made by President Trump and members of his cabinet admitting fault.
Lawyers from the nation’s top aviation disaster firm say they’ve already been contacted by some families exploring lawsuits after the disaster near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday that killed 67 people. The firm secured settlements for families of victims in the nation's last major air disaster, the 2009 crash of a Continental Airlines flight in Buffalo that killed 50 people.
Public comments by Trump, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could make their cases stronger if families of victims in this week's crash move forward, according to partners with New York-based Kreindler & Kreindler.
“Duffy basically says: We’re not going to run away from it, we’ll own it, and the president has made statements about the Army helicopter pilot who messed up,” said Justin Green a partner at the firm. “It’ll be interesting to see how the government and this administration handles any efforts to resolve this case. It’s within their power to direct claims be paid swiftly.”
The apparent acceptance of responsibility is a departure from past lawsuits, where government agencies are ultra-cautious about liability and assigning blame, Green said. The transcripts and social media posts are already “part of the fabric of the case,” and could be introduced as evidence, he said.
It wouldn’t be new territory for Trump, whose tweets in 2017 were notably used by the 9th Circuit of Appeals to block the travel ban imposed on majority Muslim countries. Earlier this week, a federal judge cited tweets made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when he issued a restraining order against a pause in federal grants and loans.
On Friday, Trump said the Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Eagle regional passenger jet was to blame for the accident, flying too high. Helicopters flying near Reagan are capped at 200 feet to avoid aircraft.
“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???" Trump said in a Truth Social post.
At the White House Thursday, Hegseth appeared to say the Defense Department would take responsibility for the crash, “no excuses, we’re going to get to the bottom of this… it never should have happened.”
“Tragically, last night, a mistake was made… and there was some sort of an elevation issue we’re investigating at the DOD and Army level,” Hegseth said.
Representatives from the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.\
Lawsuits could target FAA, DOD, American
The aviation disaster firm Kreindler also represents victims in the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse and Boeing 737 MAX lawsuits from the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed 157 people in 2019.
Green said the families “have full legal rights and almost certainly will make recoveries in settlements or at trial” against the Federal Aviation Administration for alleged negligence by air traffic controllers and the Department of Defense for any negligence by pilots of the helicopter.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/crash-victims-families-start-calling-101029331.html
Lawyers from the nation’s top aviation disaster firm say they’ve already been contacted by some families exploring lawsuits after the disaster near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday that killed 67 people. The firm secured settlements for families of victims in the nation's last major air disaster, the 2009 crash of a Continental Airlines flight in Buffalo that killed 50 people.
Public comments by Trump, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could make their cases stronger if families of victims in this week's crash move forward, according to partners with New York-based Kreindler & Kreindler.
“Duffy basically says: We’re not going to run away from it, we’ll own it, and the president has made statements about the Army helicopter pilot who messed up,” said Justin Green a partner at the firm. “It’ll be interesting to see how the government and this administration handles any efforts to resolve this case. It’s within their power to direct claims be paid swiftly.”
The apparent acceptance of responsibility is a departure from past lawsuits, where government agencies are ultra-cautious about liability and assigning blame, Green said. The transcripts and social media posts are already “part of the fabric of the case,” and could be introduced as evidence, he said.
It wouldn’t be new territory for Trump, whose tweets in 2017 were notably used by the 9th Circuit of Appeals to block the travel ban imposed on majority Muslim countries. Earlier this week, a federal judge cited tweets made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when he issued a restraining order against a pause in federal grants and loans.
On Friday, Trump said the Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Eagle regional passenger jet was to blame for the accident, flying too high. Helicopters flying near Reagan are capped at 200 feet to avoid aircraft.
“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???" Trump said in a Truth Social post.
At the White House Thursday, Hegseth appeared to say the Defense Department would take responsibility for the crash, “no excuses, we’re going to get to the bottom of this… it never should have happened.”
“Tragically, last night, a mistake was made… and there was some sort of an elevation issue we’re investigating at the DOD and Army level,” Hegseth said.
Representatives from the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.\
Lawsuits could target FAA, DOD, American
The aviation disaster firm Kreindler also represents victims in the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse and Boeing 737 MAX lawsuits from the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed 157 people in 2019.
Green said the families “have full legal rights and almost certainly will make recoveries in settlements or at trial” against the Federal Aviation Administration for alleged negligence by air traffic controllers and the Department of Defense for any negligence by pilots of the helicopter.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/crash-victims-families-start-calling-101029331.html
