Aviation Accident Causes: Pilot Error
Today's aircraft are highly sophisticated mechanical marvels capable of sustaining the safe flight of massive man-made objects that can weigh up to a million pounds.
But aircraft can and do suffer from the same kinds of mechanical failures and breakdowns that any other machine can have. When something goes wrong, the pilot's first task is to accurately assess the problem. Then and only then, the pilot should take appropriate action.
Otherwise — as seen in the October 2009 incident involving two Northwest Airline pilots who, whether sleeping or arguing, were clearly not actually flying the plane as it overflew the Minneapolis airport by more than 100 miles — computers can and do fly aircraft all the time.
Attorneys at O'Reilly Collins represented families in the TWA 800 case, including the pilot's family. Our attorneys have represented individuals and families in numerous other aviation accident cases that involved pilot error as well. Our experience stretches back more than three decades. Our results do too. In 2008 alone, in fact, we settled air disaster cases with eight-figure confidential sums totaling more than $300 million dollars.
This record of experience and results is what sets our firm apart from the rest.
Examples of pilot error we have seen in our practice include:
- Pilots underestimating the potential impact of weather conditions or overestimating their own ability to fly through them
- Pilots making the wrong in-flight decisions or adjustments based on mistaken instrument readings
- Pilots failing to follow the manufacturer's stall avoidance and recovery procedures
- Pilots neglecting proper maintenance of the aircraft
- Pilots failing to conduct a full preflight inspection
- Pilots violating FAA regulations
- Pilots flying while intoxicated
To learn more, contact our lawyers online or call our San Francisco area law offices from anywhere in the United States at 888-696-5371 (toll-free).
