Texas is a big state. And it has an innate habit of doing things on scales larger than others. Just take the example of airplanes. The Lone Star State boasts one of the largest aviation systems in the US. Housing the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, headquarters of bell Helicopter and southwest airlines along with around 730 airports, the air traffic in Texas is bound to be huge. And chances of accidents are directly proportional to the density of traffic.
Apart from major airline accidents, which has hundreds of passengers, small plane or private planes, and helicopter crashes are unfortunately more common and fatal, and also has devastating impacts on the passengers and individuals
What is an aviation accident?
An accident involving a vehicle that can fly is considered an aviation accident. The vehicle can be of any size. Some common vehicles in aviation accidents are commercial planes, drones, small private planes, and helicopters.
Why do aviation accidents occur?
There is n number of reasons an aviation accident can occur. Some of the common reasons for aviation accidents according to some airplane accidents law firms are:
- Faulty components: Accidents due to faulty components are quite an uncommon reason for aviation accidents since most manufacturers double or triple check aircraft components before selling. In such a case, an airplane accident attorney can file a lawsuit against the manufacturer.
- Piloting error: It includes all the accidents caused due to errors in piloting the plane.
- Unmaintained aircraft: It includes the accidents caused due to carelessness in preliminary checks before take-off.
- An error by air traffic control: It includes accidents caused due to errors by the control tower.
- External factors: Accidents due to bad weather, faulty runaway, crashing into birds, or other natural factors are grouped here.
How common are aviation accidents?
Aviation crashes are a few of the things that lead to some pretty devastating outcomes. A bad crash can easily reap hundreds of lives in a single go and takes a lot of time to make the crash site return to normalcy. The silver lining here is, crashes of these scales don’t occur frequently. Small-scale crashes, on the other hand, do occur more frequently in comparison. It is usually the small private planes involved in these crashes. Even though considered small, the speed and size of an aircraft are enough to make the accident noticeable and intense.
Aviation Accident Injuries
Aviation crashes often result in significant injuries like:
- Burns
- Bone fractures
- Amputations
- Significant lacerations
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Cardiovascular injuries
- Back and spinal cord injuries
- Internal organ damage
- Death
Parties that can be held liable in a plane crash
- Pilot: Can be held liable if they intentionally caused harm or piloted negligibly.
- Manufacturer: Can be held liable if the accident occurred due to a faulty component.
- Maintenance facilities: Can be held liable if the cause of the accident is due to negligence in the maintenance of the aircraft before take-off.
- Aircraft Owner: Can be held liable under the theory of respondeat superior.
- Government: Can be held liable if the accident is due to erroneous instructions from the air traffic control tower.
Legal claims that can be made in an aviation accident
Negligence
Here airplane accident attorney needs to prove that defendant had a responsibility that was breached due to negligence and as a result plaintiff was injured.
Respondeat superior
It allows an aviation accident attorney to make the employer take part responsibility for an error by their employee.
Texas Tort Claims Act
Texas’ version of federal tort claims act. It allows the aviation accident attorney of private citizens to sue the state government and its employees for torts committed in the scope of government employment. Here the state will be liable if:
The employee acted within the scope of their employment.
The employee would’ve been found liable as a private individual.
Strict Liability
In case the accident was due to faulty equipment, and airplane injury attorney can sue the manufacturer as strictly liable for dangerous products.
Federal Tort Claims Act
It allows the aviation accident lawyer of private citizens to sue the federal government and its employees for torts committed in the scope of federal employment.