Airlines are responsible for ensuring that the planes that they use for commercial flights are safe and mechanically sound for the flights they undertake. When they don’t, and you suffer an injury, you may be entitled to recover significant sums of compensation. There may be a variety of different possible people or entities who may have negligently failed to do their jobs – or do their jobs right – and are liable for the harm you suffered.
Getting the full and fair compensation that you deserve for your injuries means making the right claims, presenting the right evidence and suing the right defendants. To make sure that you’re following the right path for that recovery, be sure you’ve retained a skilled Chicago aviation injury lawyer to represent you at every step along the path.
Sometimes, there is nothing an airline can do about a problem that causes injuries to passengers. If turbulence occurs that is sudden in its onset, severe in nature and was totally not predicted by forecasts, then that may be an incident for which the airline bears no blame because, of course, your airline cannot control atmospheric conditions.
Other times, though, the problems are things under the airline’s control. For example, very recently, a commercial air flight was forced to divert to Mombasa, Kenya. What caused the emergency landing? One of the plane’s wheels completely fell off shortly after takeoff. Two passengers were hurt during that flight, according to a kenyans.co.ke report.
Much closer to home, the problem wasn’t the wheels coming off, but the tires blowing out, according to a USA Today report. In that flight that arrived at Midway Airport on the morning of Oct. 15, a hydraulic system that powered the landing gear caused the tires to blow out. News reports indicated that, in that flight, there were (thankfully) no injuries. Passengers described the landing as feeling like riding in a car with a flat tire. Unlike many turbulence incidents, the problem did not give passengers the sensation of “we all thought we were all going to die.”
Fortunately, neither the situation in Kenya nor the flight that landed here in Chicago caused any fatalities or severe injuries. Sadly, that isn’t always the case. Mechanical or equipment malfunctions are, along with weather issues and pilot error, the most common causes of airplane accidents.
Blame, and liability, could possibly lie with many people and/or entities
In many circumstances, the equipment failure did not happen “in a vacuum,” but was caused, at least partially, by an error by a pilot or a mechanic. Perhaps the pilot incorrectly adjusted one of the plane’s controls, causing the equipment to malfunction. Perhaps a mechanic hired by the airline failed to make a proper repair to the mechanical device that ultimately failed, or negligently failed to spot the problem and attempt any kind of repair at all.
In other situations, the problem is a mechanical device that was inherently defective. Depending on the facts of your case, the negligence that led to the crash – and liability for your injuries – may fall on the airline, an outside entity that provided maintenance and repair services, the entity that manufactured the component that failed, or some combination of several of those entities.
Whoever is liable for your aviation accident injuries, whether it is a mechanic, a manufacturer or an airline, it pays to have skilled counsel handling your case. For the reliable legal representation you need, reach out to the skilled Chicago injury attorneys at Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. Our attorneys are here to help you achieve the success you need in your aviation injury case. To set up a free case evaluation, contact us at 312-724-5846 or through our website.