Florida Aviation Accident Lawyer

An aviation accident claim is not a road accident claim with a different vehicle in it. The case is argued in the language of federal regulations, a federal agency controls the wreckage and the investigation, an eighteen-year clock can bar a claim against the manufacturer before anyone gets near a courtroom, and an international ticket can replace Florida law with a treaty. A Florida aviation accident lawyer has to work out which of those apply before the value of the claim means anything.

Where the Standard of Care Comes From

Congress gave the federal government control of airspace and aviation safety, and many courts, including federal courts sitting in Florida, apply the federal aviation regulations as the standard of care. Whether state negligence law is formally displaced is contested and has not been settled by the appellate court covering Florida. Either way the remedy is state law: the damages you can recover, and who can bring the claim, come from Florida law and the Florida Wrongful Death Act.

In practice the case is argued in the language of the federal aviation regulations, maintenance directives and airworthiness requirements rather than in the language of general negligence. Whether a mechanic complied with an airworthiness directive is a more useful question than whether they behaved reasonably.

General Aviation, Charter and Sightseeing Flights

Florida has a very large share of the country’s small-aircraft activity: flight training, banner towing, aerial tours over the coast and the Keys, air taxi and charter work, agricultural aviation, and helicopter operations serving tourism and medical transport. Most Florida aviation claims arise from this general aviation activity rather than from scheduled airline service.

That matters because the rules differ. For example, a charter operator flying for hire carries obligations a private pilot does not. A tour operator selling seats to the public is in a different position again. Establishing which certificate the flight was operated under is one of the first things worth knowing.

What the Investigation Can and Cannot Be Used For

The National Transportation Safety Board investigates civil aviation accidents and takes custody of the wreckage. Its work is thorough, and its factual findings are frequently the best record that exists of what happened. Federal law nevertheless restricts the use of the Board’s report in a civil damages case, and its determination of probable cause in particular is not evidence a jury may be shown.

This is less of a problem than it sounds, but only if the claim is worked properly. The underlying material, the maintenance records, the component examinations and the data recovered from the aircraft can be developed independently through the civil case and through the party’s own experts. What cannot be done is to arrive late and simply hand a jury the government’s conclusion.

International Flights Follow a Treaty

Injury or death on an international flight is generally governed by the Montreal Convention rather than by ordinary negligence law. The treaty imposes liability on the carrier for an accident on board or during embarking or disembarking, and up to a defined limit that liability does not depend on proving fault at all. Above that limit the carrier is liable unless it can show the damage was not due to its negligence.

In addition the treaty fixes a two-year period for bringing suit, and that period behaves differently from a Florida statute of limitations: it is a condition of the right itself, and the usual tolling arguments do not rescue a claim filed late. It also controls which countries a case may be brought in, which for a passenger resident in Florida usually includes Florida.

Who Can Be Responsible

• The pilot, or the pilot’s estate and employer, where the cause was operational
• The air carrier, charter operator or flight school that put the aircraft and crew together
• The maintenance facility or mechanic who signed off the last inspection
• The manufacturer of the airframe, engine, avionics or a component that failed
• The owner or lessor of the aircraft, depending on the operating arrangement
• A fuel supplier, in contamination and misfuelling cases
• The federal government, in air traffic control cases, which run under their own claims procedure and their own deadlines

Crashes Over Water

An aircraft that goes down far enough offshore falls under a federal statute written for deaths on the high seas, For commercial aviation it applies beyond twelve nautical miles from shore; for general aviation, which is most Florida flying, the general rule applies from three nautical miles out. It substitutes its own rules for who may recover and what they may recover for. Given how much Florida flying happens over the Gulf, the Atlantic and the Straits, the location of the wreckage is a legal question as much as a search one.

What to Do After an Aviation Accident

• Do not sign anything from an insurer or operator, and do not give a recorded statement
• Ask that the wreckage and all components be preserved and not released or repaired
• Keep the ticket, booking confirmation, charter agreement or training record
• Note the tail number, operator and departure point if you have them
• Preserve any photographs, video or messages sent during or before the flight
• Get advice quickly, because the manufacturer repose period and any treaty deadline run regardless of what the investigation is doing

How Alegra Law Builds an Aviation Case

We establish the operating certificate and the ownership chain, demand preservation of the wreckage, components and maintenance records, obtain the airworthiness and service history for the airframe and engine, and instruct experts to examine parts before they are released. Where a matter calls for it we associate co-counsel with specific experience in these claims, on written client consent and without increasing the client’s total fee. Where an international ticket or an offshore location changes the governing law, we identify that at the outset rather than after a deadline has passed. There is no fee unless we recover.

What a Florida Aviation Accident Lawyer Establishes First

Before anything else, a Florida aviation accident lawyer identifies the certificate the flight was operated under, the ownership and maintenance chain behind the aircraft, and whether a treaty or an offshore statute displaces Florida law. Those three answers decide who can be sued, in what court, and how long there is to do it.

Frequently Asked Questions