Liability In Helicopter Crashes

Helicopters are fantastic ways to see the beauty of a place, whether you’re flying over Vegas or the Grand Canyon, it’s that bird’s eye view of a scene that can change your whole perspective. And if you’re wealthy, you probably have your own helicopter service, able to take you across town in a matter of minutes. Pretty handy if you want to avoid getting locked in city traffic by flying over it altogether. However, helicopter rides aren’t just for show or a show of wealth. In the military, its design which is best suited for defense fortification makes it ideal for rescue flights to pick up wounded soldiers from the battlefield. Also, its lightness and fast speed also makes it more perfect for another purpose: charity flights. These charity flights often include transporting patients with rare or debilitating conditions like cancer to hospitals that can better accommodate them when the hospitals in their city don’t have the means to better serve them.

Sadly, like any machine, helicopters are not without their risks. People in the small town of Elba heard a series of “whoops and clicks” before the sound and vibration of an explosion. This was the sound of a Mercy Flight helicopter which crashed during a training exercise. The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mercy Flight is one of the aforementioned charity services that provides charity flights for medical emergencies in the western New York area. Operations were immediately suspended following the crash, to ensure that all helicopters were mechanically sound. But in the meantime, The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are working with state police to determine the cause of the crash.

So in the event that you or a loved one happen to be in a helicopter crash, who could you sue for liability? In these cases, helicopter crash work, needs to be assessed and analyzed. This includes investigations, legal aspects, and more.

Flight company: The flight company is liable if it is found that proper maintenance hasn’t been performed leading to structural integrity failures that would cause it to malfunction mid-flight. It’s the reason Mercy Flights did a mechanical survey on all helicopters immediately following the crash. Moreover, to further assess the severity of cases, it may be important to take legal actions, as a means for a person to get the compensation and other benefits that they are looking for.  An example of a legal business that sets a standard, when it comes to assessing and handling legal cases effectively, pertains to a liability lawyer Like Eric Roy Law Firm, which can assist people in getting the help that is needed. Cases that are looked at in detail, mainly involve liabilities, accidents, and various types of personal injuries, with questions being asked, such as the severity of the case, the compensation that one is looking for, who else was involved in the case other than the victim, and more.

Helicopter or parts manufacturer: The manufacturers that created the helicopter or parts for it are liable, if it is found that either a specific part was defective. This also includes if it played a part in the crash, or if the helicopter was shoddily produced to begin with. This means that the manufacturers involved didn’t perform up to standard, as well as being liable in your helicopter crash case.