US Airways fights punitives in crash; Carolina crash victims claim the airline acted recklessly in flying through a violent thunderstorm
Article Abstract:
US Airways is fighting punitive damages in the federal wrongful death suit after the crash at Charlotte, NC, on July 2, 1994. The plaintiffs' side is trying to prove reckless negligence, while US Airways contends that the negligence of the air traffic controllers was the crash's sole proximate cause. The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) report blames the crash on a microburst but assigns blame to the pilots for failure to recognize conditions indicating a possibility of one. The NTSB report also assigns some blame to air traffic controllers. According to experts, airlines have almost never had to pay punitive damages.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1997
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Air crash at sea limits recovery: high court's KAL ruling clouds Lockerbie case
Article Abstract:
A US Supreme Court ruling against plaintiffs in the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down near the Soviet Union fails to clarify the position of plaintiffs of the Pan Am Flight 103 explosion who are attempting to recover loss-of-society claims. The court ruled that the 1929 Warsaw Convention leaves compensable types of harm and who may recover to domestic law and that the Death on the High Seas Act, not general maritime law, applies to crashes on the high seas. Unlike the KAL flight, the Pan Am one crashed on land and so what law will be applied is still unknown.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1996
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KAL argues against loss-of-society award
Article Abstract:
The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Nov 7, 1995, in a claim for recovery of damages stemming from the 1983 Soviet shoot-down of Korean Air Lines flight 007. Willful misconduct by KAL has been shown, lifting the $75,000-per-passenger cap on damages, but the justices will decide whether loss-of-society damages are allowable under the Warsaw Convention and plaintiffs must be financially dependent on the decedent. Attorneys argued over whether French law should apply or the Death on the High Seas Act.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1995
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