Accident Causes

Aviation Law Attorneys in California Serving the Nation

Commercial and general aviation accidents can be traced to a variety of causes, including pilot error, manufacturer defects, maintenance failures, runway incursions, design defects or inclement weather. An experienced aviation law attorney can help you to pursue an airplane accident claim by identifying every potential cause as well as the parties responsible.

Contact the experienced airplane accident attorneys of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, P.C. to discuss your case and to find answers about the cause of the crash.

At Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, P.C., our lawyers have more than 20 years of experience in investigating airplane accident causes and pursuing accountability. We will aggressively pursue the associated claims against negligent defendants as well as full compensation for the victims and families of airplane accidents and other aviation crashes.

We thoroughly investigate and expose airplane accident causes.

Our attorneys use a team of investigators and leading experts to inspect and analyze every aspect of the accident, including moments leading up to the crash. We assess corporate policies that may have impacted actions of those involved, listen to evidence preserved in the cockpit voice recorder and analyze the salvaged remains of the aircraft to ensure all angles of liability are pursued. Thereafter, we pursue personal injury and wrongful death claims under product, airline, pilot, controller, or other liability theories as appropriate.

Our experience handling aviation accidents over the past decades has provided us with comprehensive understanding of the many common causes of airplane accidents and other aviation accidents:

• Maintenance negligence: A leading trend in the aviation industry is to cut corners and outsource aircraft maintenance and inspections. Airlines do the absolute minimum to keep planes in the air; as a result, crash victims and their families suffer.
• Design defects: Components of aircrafts must be designed to withstand wind, take off, landing and the stresses of flight. When the aircraft design is inadequate, design engineers should be held accountable. We represented clients in a helicopter crash accident in which the metal in the yoke of the helicopter was not strong enough to withstand even normal wind conditions, resulting in separation from the tail rotor.
• Crew negligence/human factors: Crew negligence often leads to aviation accidents. Another example is a case Baum Hedlund handled involving a Chinese Eastern Airline flight to Los Angeles. While flying over Alaska, the nose of the plane pitched straight down when the co-pilot mistakenly bumped an exposed lever that was to be kept under a dome glass cover. All unbuckled passengers hit the ceiling and suffered neck injuries - some even died. While this accident is a clear example of a design defect, it is also an example of crew errors that lead to mass disasters.
• Corporate negligence: The corporate airline industry is emphasizing timing, turnaround and cutting corners over public safety. Pilots and crew are being pushed by corporate policies to make unsafe landings to avoid paperwork, to fly with the minimum amount of fuel, and to make other unsafe judgment calls.

Runway Incursions

Our firm has successfully handled numerous runway incursion accident cases, including one at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in which a federal air traffic controller's negligence resulted in a US Airways plane landing on a SkyWest plane. We also handled the 2000 Alaska airline crash in which the crew attempted to fix a problem with the horizontal stabilizer in the plane's tail while the plane was still in the air. Due to a combination of pilot error and manufacturing defect, the plane went straight down and crashed into the ocean.

When negligence leads to mass disasters, victims and families deserve answers and compensation.

At Baum Hedlund, we vigorously pursue accountability against negligent federal air traffic controllers, flight service stations, design engineers, manufacturers, airlines and all other responsible parties. Whether the airplane accident was caused by the failure to de-ice the wings or by some form of pilot or corporate negligence, the lawyers of Baum Hedlund will get answers and pursue justice.

For immediate assistance - or to schedule an initial consultation or case evaluation with an experienced aviation or plane crash lawyer - please contact Baum Hedlund, P.C., based in Los Angeles, California.

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Our verdicts and settlements do not constitute a guarantee, warranty or prediction regarding the outcome of your case.