Los Angeles International Airport is considered as the fifth busiest commercial airport in the world and third busiest in the United States. Every year the airport handles over 80 million and 5 tons of cargo.
Generally, people in Los Angeles considered aircraft as one of the safest form of transportation. Relatively aircrafts accidents are frequent especially those involving private jet but the incident is often unreported.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), air travel is expected to double its number for the next 20 years. As air traffic increases so as the accident connected with it.
Aviation accident often ends with fatal results. Major air carrier and general aviation accidents are covered by the aviation accident law. The General aviation includes all non-commercial aircraft including small plans, large business jet, charter flights, pleasure crafts, helicopters and hang gliders.
Form of Aviation accident
Aviation accidents cause fatal injuries as a result of falling baggage, assaults and other related incident.
The following forms of accidents may result to injury or death among passenger and crew:
• Engine Failure
• Collision and crashes
• Faulty communication
• Traffic control error
• Pilot negligence
• Falling baggage
• Runway condition
Aviation Accidents Liable parties
Determining the person who is liable during the plane accident needs the skills and logical experience of an Aviation Accident lawyer.
The federal government may held responsible for the faulty error occur during the accident since it is there responsibility to ensure safety measures to be taken during each flight.
Aircraft are considered common carrier meaning they have the responsibility to transport people from one place to another. Negligence on the part of owner and operator will be punishable by law. The manufacturer and maintenance suppliers will also be held liable, if the equipment used by the aircraft is faulty and causes the accident.
Who is more liable the owner or operator?
The cause of airplane accident will determine the liable person. If the aircraft owner and operator negligence has been proven, they can be held reliable for the damages suffered by injured parties such as passengers, people on the ground or even pilot.
The owner could be held reliable even if someone else operated the aircraft. The theory called vicarious liability supported the notion of considering the owner as reliable as its operator.
Both the owner/operator is reliable in an event that the owner, operator and the manufacturer committed the aircraft accident; the jury will decide the distribution of the blame between the two parties. The notion that both operator/owner and manufacturer are reliable is called comparative fault.
In United States, almost all states used the comparative fault or the distribution of blame between the two parties. For example, the pilot may be given a 20 percent fault for carelessness and 80 percent fault for the manufacturer of defective landing equipment.
The manufacturer is reliable if the victim can prove that the landing gear purchase from a manufacturer is the main cause of aircraft accident, the manufacturer can be held reliable.
The notion of holding the manufacturer as the reliable party is called strict liability. Every state has its own version or law regarding it.
Federal government is reliable
FAA under Federal government controls air traffic through Air Traffic Control System (ATC). The ATC will be held accountable, if an aircraft accident involves collision.
Common Carriers Role
Common carrier is the legal classification of commercial airlines. It is governed by strict standards compare to private carriers. FAA imposes standards operating procedure and monitors the aircraft to ensure safety of the commercial airplanes
If common carriers committed mistakes implementing the safety standards, they can be held responsible.
Victims of Aviation accident need a thorough understanding of the complex rules and regulation of the common carriers in finding liability.
The Role of Lawyers in Aviation Accidents
Aviation accident cases involve several issues that could affect the litigation outcome. Personal injuries cases connected to airplanes base its verdict by the defendant’s statements, questions of the venue, aviation engineering, industry standards and federal government rules and regulation. It is complex and often involves analysis of the federal and state law.
You need the help of an experienced aviation accident attorney to facilitate all this complicating issues. Having an attorney is an advantage in pursuing aviation accident case.
Our Aviation Accident Lawyers are highly trained in handling personal injury claims. For more details on how to avail of our free case evaluation services, just log on to http://www.mesrianilaw.com
Before becoming a writer, Janice spent her time reading a lot of educational books. From this hobby, she soon discovered her passion for writing and took up Journalism. She became a paralegal writer, and worked as an editor/columnist to a magazine specializing on government and business affairs. Later on, she evolves herself into a legal writer of a famous Los Angeles based law firm.
This article has been accessed 23 times since 2008-08-12.
