Cargo Plane Crash: What Families and Survivors Need to Know

What a Cargo Plane Crash Means Legally

A cargo aircraft is an aircraft operated mainly to carry freight rather than passengers. The category includes dedicated freighters, aircraft that carry both cargo and a small number of passengers, and aircraft flown by companies whose whole business is moving freight by air.

The legal category depends on who operates the flight. Federal aviation regulations sort commercial operators into groups, and two matter most here. An air carrier operating under Part 121 of those regulations runs scheduled operations, the structure that larger cargo airlines fly under. A charter operator under Part 135 flies on-demand or smaller-scale operations, often with smaller aircraft on shorter routes. The rules for crew training, maintenance programs and operational control differ between the two. Because of that, the questions in a civil case also differ.

A cargo crash can look simpler than an airline crash because so few people were on board. Usually it is not. A freight flight involves a shipper who packaged and declared the goods, a company that loaded and balanced them, a maintenance provider, the operator, and manufacturers of the airframe, engines and systems. Each of those may be a separate business.

The people affected are not only the flight crew. Ground crew who load and service aircraft, people on the ground near a crash site, and passengers on combination flights can all be hurt or killed. The legal path can differ for each group. A crew member's claim against an employer, for example, may run through a separate system that this site does not cover.

This is a national page. State law governs most civil claims after a crash, and limitation periods, fault rules and damages rules differ from state to state. No one state's rule applies everywhere. This page also covers the legal landscape for this kind of accident, not any specific crash.

Typical Operators and Aircraft in Cargo Crash Cases

Cargo aviation is run by several different kinds of businesses, and the kind of business often shapes the case.

Large integrated cargo carriers run their own fleets, hubs and ground operations under Part 121. Regional freight operators and charter cargo companies, often flying under Part 135, move packages, mail and specialty freight between smaller airports, sometimes on a contract basis for larger carriers. Contract freight haulers fly routes on another company's behalf. In a wet-lease arrangement, one company supplies the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance to another company, which sells the transportation. In these arrangements the name on the package and the company that flew the aircraft may not be the same.

The aircraft vary as much as the operators. Turboprop freighters are common on short regional routes. Narrow-body and wide-body jet freighters carry larger loads over longer distances. Many freighters are converted passenger airframes, aircraft built to carry people and later modified with cargo doors, reinforced floors and cargo-handling systems. A conversion can bring in another company whose work may matter: the business that designed or performed the modification.

The operator's type matters because it shapes which regulatory duties applied to the flight and which businesses may be in the picture. A Part 121 carrier and a small Part 135 operator work under different training, maintenance and dispatch requirements. Their insurance and contracting structures may also differ. For a family, the questions that come early are often the most basic ones: who actually operated this flight, and what is the aircraft's registration? Those answers tell you which company held operational control and which records exist. They are also where much of the later work in a case starts. A conversation with our attorney can cover what is known so far about the operator, the aircraft and the route.

How Cargo Plane Crashes Happen — Accident Mechanisms

Investigators group aviation accidents by mechanism, meaning the chain of events that led to the crash. In cargo flying, the general categories include the following.

Weight-and-balance errors are one category. An aircraft must be loaded within limits on how much it carries and where that weight sits. Improper loading, a load that shifts in flight, or cargo that was not properly secured can affect how the aircraft handles.

Cargo fire is another. A fire can start in the hold, sometimes involving hazardous materials that were improperly declared or packaged.

Mechanical or structural failure covers a failure in an engine, a flight control, a system or the structure itself.

Maintenance errors cover work that was done incorrectly, not done, or not properly recorded.

Controlled flight into terrain, known as CFIT, is when an aircraft that is working normally is flown into the ground, water or an obstacle.

Weather and environmental factors include icing, wind shear, low visibility and similar conditions, often in combination with other factors. Runway overruns, where an aircraft leaves the end of the runway on landing or takeoff, also occur.

These are general categories, not explanations of any specific accident. The mechanism of a particular crash is not established until the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency that investigates civil aviation accidents, states its findings. Guessing before then can point a family in the wrong direction. The phrase "pilot error" in particular is an investigative label, as the site's page on pilot error in plane crashes explains, not a legal conclusion.

Mechanism matters to a legal claim because each one points toward different kinds of businesses:

• A loading problem raises questions about the operator and the ground handler.
• A hazardous-materials fire raises questions about the shipper.
• A component failure raises questions about manufacturers.
• A maintenance error raises questions about the repair organization.

How the NTSB Investigates a Cargo Crash — and What That Means for Your Case

The NTSB is an independent federal agency, separate from any airline or manufacturer, that investigates civil aviation accidents. Its findings usually come out in stages. A preliminary report sets out early facts, such as the date, the aircraft, the flight and initial observations. It is not a finding of cause. As the work goes on, the agency assembles a factual record of data, examinations and interviews. A final report closes the investigation and states the probable cause, which is the NTSB's own determination of why the accident happened. Investigation status for a specific accident is published by the NTSB at ntsb.gov.

Federal law limits how an NTSB report can be used in court. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b), "No part of a report of the Board, related to an accident or an investigation of an accident, may be admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages resulting from a matter mentioned in the report." The report and the underlying evidence are different things, though. Maintenance logs, flight data, wreckage and witness accounts are not the NTSB's report, and they may be sought through discovery, the formal exchange of evidence in a lawsuit.

Cockpit recordings follow a stricter rule. Under section 1154(a), a party generally may not use discovery to obtain a cockpit voice or video recording, or the parts of a transcript or still images the NTSB has not made public. A court may allow it after a private (in camera) review if the public material is not enough for a fair trial. When a court allows it, it must issue a protective order limiting how the material is used.

An open investigation and a state's limitation period are separate tracks. Waiting for a final report and a filing deadline are two different clocks.

Families also have rights during the investigation in some cases. When an accident involving an air carrier causes a loss of life and the NTSB leads the investigation, 49 U.S.C. § 1136 requires the NTSB to:

• name a director of family support services;
• designate a nonprofit organization to coordinate emotional care, psychological care and family support services;
• to the maximum extent practicable, brief families before any public briefing.

The statute's definition of "passenger" includes an employee of an air carrier aboard the aircraft, which can include a cargo crew member. After an accident involving an air carrier providing interstate or foreign air transportation, the same section bars an attorney, or any potential party to the litigation, from making unsolicited contact about a potential personal-injury or wrongful-death action with an injured person or a relative before the 45th day after the accident.

Injuries and Losses a Cargo Crash Can Cause

The people hurt in a cargo crash are often workers. Pilots and flight crew, ramp and ground crew, people on the ground near the crash site, and passengers on combination aircraft can all be affected. If you are a survivor or a family member, the losses rarely stop at the injury itself. Work, income and the plans a household made together often change at the same time.

Aviation accidents can cause traumatic brain injury, which is damage to the brain from impact or sudden force. They can also cause burns, spinal cord injury, crush injuries and death. This page describes these only as categories. It gives no medical guidance, and the treating physicians' records describe any individual injury.

The law groups damages into categories, and whether any category applies depends on the facts and on the applicable state's law.

Economic losses can include medical expenses, lost earnings and, after a death, the loss of financial support the person provided.

Non-economic losses can include pain and suffering and, after a death, loss of companionship.

Punitive damages, meant to punish rather than repay, are allowed in some states and only under that state's standards.

Nothing about an injury shows by itself that anyone was at fault. A civil claim generally asks whether someone owed a duty, breached it, and caused the harm. A product claim asks whether there was a defect that caused the harm.

When someone dies, the family's claim is usually a wrongful death claim, meaning a claim the law gives certain survivors because of another's wrongful conduct. Wrongful death claims are mainly governed by state law, and states differ significantly on who may bring one, what may be recovered and how quickly it must be filed. The site's page on aviation wrongful death claims covers that framework in more depth. For families, the practical questions are often who in the family can act and what records of the person's work and support exist.

Who May Be Responsible — Potential Defendants in a Cargo Crash Case

Responsibility in a cargo crash can be spread across several businesses, and each was responsible for a different part of the flight.

• The aircraft operator, whether a Part 121 carrier or a Part 135 charter operator, controlled the flight, the crew, dispatch and often the loading.
• The aircraft manufacturer designed and built the airframe. Where an aircraft was converted from passenger use, the company behind the conversion may also matter.
• Component and systems manufacturers made parts such as engines, avionics and cargo loading systems.
• A maintenance and repair organization (MRO), a business that inspects, repairs and overhauls aircraft, may have worked on the aircraft or its parts.
• The cargo shipper may matter if hazardous materials were improperly declared, packaged or loaded.
• A ground handler or airport authority may have handled loading, fueling, deicing or the airfield itself.
• Government entities may be involved in limited circumstances, under special rules that set them apart from private parties.

Where more than one party contributed, states use comparative fault principles to divide responsibility. These principles vary by state. Some states reduce what an injured person may recover by that person's share of fault, and others treat shared fault differently.

Not every cargo crash involves all of these parties. The facts of a specific accident determine which of them are relevant. A crash with no cargo issue may never involve a shipper, and a crash caused by weather alone may involve no manufacturer. Sorting this out usually means working through the NTSB record, maintenance logs, cargo manifests and contracts, and that is typically the stage where legal counsel becomes involved. For a family, a useful starting point is simply listing every company whose name has appeared so far, including on paychecks, uniforms, the aircraft and news reports.

Evidence That Often Matters in a Cargo Crash Case

A cargo crash case is built on records, and most of them are not in the family's hands.

The flight data recorder, which stores flight parameters, and the cockpit voice recorder, which records sounds in the cockpit, are controlled by the NTSB during the investigation. As explained above, federal law limits access to cockpit recordings. Other evidence that often matters includes:

• maintenance records and logs showing compliance with airworthiness directives, the FAA's mandatory safety orders for aircraft and parts;
• the cargo manifest, weight-and-balance documents and any hazardous-materials declarations;
• air traffic control communications and radar data;
• the NTSB's investigative docket, the factual material gathered during the investigation, which is distinct from the final report that section 1154(b) keeps out of civil damages actions;
• operator training records and crew certifications;
• the physical wreckage and examinations of individual components.

Much of this is held by the operator, the NTSB or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It is obtained through formal legal process rather than by request.

If you were hurt, or you lost someone, the records that usually matter early are the ones you already hold. These include medical and hospital records, photographs and video, pay stubs and employment papers, any letters from the operator or an insurer, and the names and contact details of coworkers or witnesses. Families often keep these together while the formal record is still being assembled. These are the documents a conversation with an attorney usually begins with.

Filing Deadlines and Why the Applicable State's Law Governs

Civil claims after a cargo crash are governed mainly by state tort law. Each state sets its own statute of limitations, the period within which a lawsuit must be filed. Each state also sets its own rules on when that period starts to run and what exceptions apply. There is no single national limitation period for aviation tort claims. This page does not give any state's period. A limitation period can only be stated as the applicable state's statute states it, and which state's law applies can itself be a question in a crash involving a carrier based in one state, a flight departing another, and a crash in a third.

Federal law can also come in. The Death on the High Seas Act, a federal statute found at 46 U.S.C. § 30301 et seq., is the law the name describes: it concerns deaths on the high seas. It can come into the picture when a cargo aircraft goes down over open water, and it has its own rules. Whether it applies depends on where and how the death occurred.

The NTSB's timeline does not change any of this on its own. A state's limitation period runs separately from the investigation, so the date of a final report and a filing deadline are different dates. For a family, the questions at this stage tend to be practical: where did the flight begin and end, where did the crash happen, and where was the person who died living and working? If you want to talk through which state's law may apply and what that means for timing, you can request a case evaluation.